In Igby Goes Down, she is a caustic, pill-swilling, upper-class matron whose sons open the film by killing her. In Moonlight Mile, she is a writer whose daughter has been murdered, and who, with her husband, forms a neurotic attachment to the late daughter's fiancé. In The Banger Sisters, she plays a Martha Stewart mom who receives a midlife wakeup call, and runs off to relive her wild youth as a rock 'n' roll groupie. The newspaper racket views such moments as a good opportunity for a feature story. But since The Stranger film section can't abide such things, I will use the occasion to discuss the fact that Susan Sarandon is 56 years old and still the most sexually attractive movie star in Hollywood.
During her 30-year career, Sarandon has played the full gamut of female characters available to a Hollywood star--from ingénue to quirky "older woman" to, now, mother (next stop: grande dame)--investing them all with intelligence and power. And when I say power, I mean the full weight of adult female sexual energy--the power of being unstoppably foxy and knowing it and looking beyond it, which is Sarandon's chief asset as a screen presence.
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As she gets older and more confident in that power, she lends standard Hollywood characters--moms, nuns, et al.--an uncustomary liveliness. It forgives her participation in such garbage as The Banger Sisters and Stepmom, while making her roles in the likes of Thelma & Louise, White Palace, and Twilight positively ring with erotic transfiguration.
Her earlier performances (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pretty Baby, Atlantic City, and, of course, The Hunger) were more overtly carnal, but frankly, I just think her powerful voluptuousness, her easy drawl, and my god, her eyes, have all improved with the heft of age. Color me lecherous, but one reason I go to the movies is to lust after movie stars. Susan Sarandon is a very good actress, who excels at playing moments of wounded dignity. But she is also a hottie, and only getting hottier.
by Sean Nelson
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