Words Seem Out Of Place

My short answer to that headline? No. I'm not slighting Margot Robbie, though. I happen to think she's extremely talented, unfairly underrated, and a fine actress. It's just that, as we all know, there is only one Michelle Pfeiffer. Libby Gelman Waxner (aka Paul Rudnick) said it best: Michelle Pfeiffer is what God had in mind for humanity before the blueprints got all smudged in the glove compartment. So, when Nylon recently made a case for Margot Robbie being this generation's Michelle Pfeiffer , some folks on the internet screamed, "Hell no!" Read Hayden Manders's article, then come on back for my thoughts. Some Twitter reactionaries seemed to think Nylon meant that Robbie was usurping Pfeiffer . That's not the message I took from it, though. By "this generation" I think they mean the millennial generation. Robbie is a millennial, after all. Pfeiffer is technically a Boomer, but her birth year (1958) falls towards the tail...

The trailer for I, Tonya is absolutely bonkers , both heartbreaking and hilarious, and I want to give Margot Robbie  all the awards based on this small sampling of her work in the film. To me, and again based on these few minutes of scenes, it has a similar vibe to Gus Van Sant's To Die For, which featured a jaw-dropping Nicole Kidman performance . Both films seem to be about mentally unstable women obsessed with fame or fortune who resort to some form of illegality—murder in To Die For , clubbing Nancy Kerrigan in the knees in I, Tonya —to further their careers. Kidman's work in To Die For is, pardon the pun, to die for. I may be reading too much into a trailer, but it's looking like Robbie could turn in a similarly exceptional performance in a similarly challenging role. For that and other reasons, I'm chomping at the bit to see this movie. It opens Friday. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to wait several months to see it on-de...