This post was submitted by Ben K.

Here’s something you should know: here in Chicago, where I’m writing from, I live in the gayest of the gay neighborhoods in the city.  For those of you unfamiliar with Chicago, the gayborhood here is known as “Boystown,” a section of the lovely neighborhood of East Lakeview (and as it sounds borders Lake Michigan on its east boundary), which is itself, a neighborhood within the larger neighborhood of Lakeview on Chicago’s northside.  And I live in the thick of Boystown, right on the main drag of Halsted Street.  On Cinco de Mayo, a lovely and warm day here, as all the bars had their windows open, I successfully Shazammed a song coming out of the club across the street from my living room window.  Seriously.  It was “Piel Morena” by Thalia.

Anyway…  You get it, I live in a loud place.  Well again tonight, it’s warm out and the street is alive, and what I’m hearing blaring into my living room now is Cher.  See, it’s Cher’s birthday, and all the gays here are partying it up.  And this got me thinking. I enjoy Cher’s music in as campy a way as many might, but the reason I love Cher (and I really do love Cher) has little to do with her music career.  Instead, it is her film career that I most sincerely, greatly admire.  And I’ll give you four solid reasons why: Silkwood, Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and my personal favorite, Moonstruck.

In Silkwood (1983), Cher really proved her chops as an actress, playing the lesbian roommate and friend of Karen Silkwood, the real-life figure who fought for the justice of herself and fellow coworkers at an unsafe plant in Oklahoma.  Cher was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this film, a well-deserved nomination.  Silkwood really is a great movie, particularly in its portrayal of workers fighting against both big business and union interests.  But as good as Cher is in the film, it is really Meryl Streep’s film.

Believe it though that Mask (1985) is most definitely Cher’s film.  As the wild, spirited, Harley-riding Rusty, Cher dominates the screen with a free-spirit’s energy and a mother’s protection.  Based on the life of Rocky Dennis, who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (yep, I Wikied that), a serious condition that causes calcium build-up on the skull, causing severe facial disfigurement and shortening of the lifespan.

While Eric Stoltz provides a touching portrait of Rocky, it is Cher who pulls us in and pushes forward the dramatic arcs of the film.  She is fiercely protective and determined that Rocky will live as normal a life as possible.  She knows that the key to success is for Rocky to be treated in the same manner that any other human being is treated, both the good and the bad.  Cher falls completely into Rusty, and what comes out is an engaging portrayal of a person filled with a love for life, no matter what it has dealt her.  For Mask, Cher won the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

Two years later, Cher would appear with Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jack Nicholson in one of my favorite comedies, The Witches of Eastwick.  The three lead women live in the small and quaint town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, unhappy about the state of their lives and their relationships with men.  One night over drinks, the women speak their recipe for the perfect man, and in the midst of a supernatural moment, give manifestation to this perfect man who arrives mysteriously from out-of-town.  As that man, Jack Nicholson, puts forward one of his most entertaining performances as Daryl, who throughout the film seems more and more like he may not be perfection that came down from the heavens, and may just be from somewhere much, much worse.

But for me, the reason I love Cher is because of Moonstruck.  To me, this is a film that gets as close to perfect as any.  Solid direction mixed with a flawless script and diced with spot-on, memorable performances across the board makes this a wildly pleasurable film-going experience.  The film was nominated for a number of Oscars, including Best Picture, and won for Best Screenplay for John Patrick Shanley, Best Supporting Actress for Olympia Dukakis, and, of course, Best Actress for Cher.

Well-deserved.  Her portrayal of the 37-year old Loretta Castorini is everything you want out of such a character in this type of film.  Loretta thinks she’s been plagued with bad luck her whole life, and when her one chance of love was taken away, she became much more practical.  When a completely unexpected romance whisks her away, she and all the characters in the film begin to walk around like they are characters in a film about love at first sight and deep romance.  And boy, oh boy does it work.

Just so none of you get all worked up, I like Mermaids; it’s just not a favorite—sorry.  And if you’re looking for something a bit more obscure of Cher’s, or at least less well-known these days, rent Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

So get out there and celebrate some Cher.  Dance if you must, drag it up and perform a Cher classic, but please, above all else, rent one of these films.  I promise you a rewarding experience.

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