#1 Michelle Pfeiffer
90s filmography:
90 The Russia House 91 Frankie & Johnny
92 Batman Returns, Love Field
93 The Age of Innocence 94 Wolf 95 Dangerous Mind
96 Up Close and Personal, To Gillian on her 37th..., One Fine Day
97 A Thousand Acres 98 The Prince of Egypt
99 A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Story of Us, The Deep End of...There's Michelle... and then there's everyone else. Despite diving headfirst into relatively unchallenging mainstream fare this decade, she remains one of our finest actors and an incomparable screen presence. She began the decade still riding high from her moment on the piano as ÔSusie DiamondÕ (her bid for the movie star pantheon in 89), but unfortunately lost out to some old biddie at the Oscars. That unjust moment wasnÕt the best start to the decade. She then weathered a bit of a backlash resulting from her against-type work in Frankie & Johnny.
Slipping into black vinyl, she regained her iconic stature and brought down the house as Catwoman in 92, cementing her place in screen history once and for all. Meow. The Oscars screwed her a couple more times as she went unnominated for her two best performances during the decade -Batman Returns & The Age of Innocence- in direct succession.
Right after that she seemed to temporarily chuck her dramatic aspirations and jumped into lighthearted mainstream waters. The peak of this phase box office wise was Dangerous Minds (in which 'Chelle was just nifty, thank you) and the nadir quality wise was Up Close and Personal (her only bad performance of the 90s) The best of the whole batch turned out to be One Fine Day in which Michelle positively glowed. Why it wasn't a major romantic comedy winner is beyond this fan. As that genre goes, it's super. After that her momentum and killer career slowed. It could be the happy home life she was building with David Kelley. Damn that familial bliss! I need her in maximum tortured dramatic shape. I need those brilliantly rendered portraits of tragic doomed beauties. (No one does that as well as her, you have to admit!)When Pfeiffer returned to close out the decade in 99, I don't think it happened with quite the bang that she had anticipated. The Deep End of the Ocean as a film wasn't up to the level of the book and kind of sabotaged her fine work. The Story of Us, despite the starpower, failed to ignite much interest. (See it anyway, she's in top form.) On top of all that, she announced "semi-retirement" to commence after What Lies Beneath premieres this summer. This Pfan is crying over Catwoman's spilt milk. What will I do without her?
But more importantly, what will the movies do without her? You can take your Julia Roberts, Meg Ryans, and anyone else you'd like to call "America's Sweetheart." Michelle is the real deal. The bonafide one-of-a kind modern love goddess movie star. They'll be placing her up there with Monroe, the Hepburns, Garland, Bergman, and the like. She's one for the pantheon. History will show. She is an underappreciated modern legend with the soul of a character actor and the beauty of a screen goddess. Michelle Pfeiffer was made for the the closeup and the darkened theater
-Nathaniel
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(the Top 20)
Michelle Pfeiffer / Susan Sarandon / Brad Pitt
Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Ralph Fiennes & Juliette Lewis
Jodie Foster & Anthony Hopkins
Emma Thompson, Angela Bassett & Holly Hunter
Helena Bonham-Carter, Christina Ricci, Spacey & Bening
Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp & Matt Damon / Joan Cusack