by Nathaniel R
Pfeiffer last week at the Scarface reunion screening in NYCHappy 60th birthday to Michelle Pfeiffer! Looking as perfect as ever.
It's been so thrilling to witness the RePfeiffal this past year beginning with her stealing the gonzo show in mother!, to pulling some focus in the box office hit Murder on the Orient Express, receiving an Emmy nod for Wizard of Lies, and then winning rave reviews for the very bleak Where is Kyra? in which she plays a destitute woman suddenly in a very dark place when the only thing keeping her going (caring for her ill mother) is gone. Next up is something lighter for the masses with the role of Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp) in Ant Man and the Wasp. This will be her first superhero outing since her indelible Oscar worthy star turn in Batman Returns (1992) and will surely be added to her pile of $100 million plus domestic hits...
Marvel recently revealed that the plot of Ant Man and the Wasp is about the search for her character specifically. There has already been plentiful theorizing online that the long missing presumed dead Van Dyne is in "the Quantum Realm" and the exploration / secrets of the Quantum Realm (briefly scene in both the first Ant Man film and the first Doctor Strange film if I recall correctly) will also somehow tie in to how Marvel will rescue itself from the faux bloodbath at the end of Avengers: Infinity War in which AVENGERS SPOILER...
they killed off so many major characters they've basically committed suicide as a powerhouse movie studio unless they resurrect them. I'm not joking. Two of the many deaths alone -- namely Black Panther and Spider-Man are worth at least 10 billion each in immediate future revenue as they're just at the beginning of their insane franchise popularity with the current stars. This is why we can't figure why anyone is taking the ending of that movie seriously, but many people including critics and media types who really ought to know better are. Why are people so gullible? /SPOILER
Anyway. before Ant Man and the Wasp even opens Pfeiffer's lining up another similarly surefire box office hit so we're hopeful for maybe the pfirst time ever in her pfrequent intermittent "comebacks" that she actually plan to stick around this time. She's in advance talks to play the Queen in Maleficent 2 opposite Angelina Jolie who herself had seemingly all but retired post By The Sea (2015). Given that Maleficent 2 isn't operating off of the Sleeping Beauty myth anymore who knows what that plot might be like or how large a role the queen might have. But if any female movie star can hold her own in the very specific realm of the franchise popcorn picture against the supersized screen presence of Jolie, it's surely La Pfeiffer.
My favorite reaction to all the "Michelle Pfeiffer Joins Maleficent Sequel" headlines came from our very own Jason Adams, who tweeted.
Michelle Pfeiffer doesn’t join movies
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 28, 2018
Movies join Michelle Pfeiffer
Damn right!
So happy birthday to my lifelong pfav and pforever queen. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for coming back to us. Please stick around for once!
P.S. Over on twitter I indulged in some pfandom as well so I'm lifting this impromptu list I made to make this post a bit more celebratory
Her 10 best performances according to this lifelong Pfan (subject to change with each rewatch)
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) April 29, 2018
1) Fabulous Baker Boys
2) Batman Returns
3) White Oleander
4) Scarface
5) Dangerous Liaisons
6) mother!
7) Married to Mob
8) What Lies Beneath
9) Age of Innocence
10) Where is Kyra? pic.twitter.com/0dUfk3S5te