ANNETTE BENING
Annette Bening turned 70 this year. And like a fine wine, she just keeps getting better.
She is currently appearing in the nice adaptation of Chekov’s The Seagull (2018) in the key role of Irina. Irina is an aging actress whose best days are over, but she gamely hangs on to her ebbing career. The movie, and play, take place at a summer cottage in Russia, owned by Irina’s brother. In this absorbing story, everyone wants something he or she can’t have. Brian Dennehy, Saoirse Ronan and Elizabeth Moss are additional parts of a fine cast. Since it is based on a stage play, it is a little talky, but director Michael Mayer has opened it up nicely. Bening’s performance alone is worth the price of admission.
In the strangely but aptly named Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool (2017) Annette Bening gets to go full out in a semi biography of Oscar winner Gloria Grahame’s last days with a much younger man. 
Annette Bening owns Being Julia (2004) lock, stock and barrel, but that’s ok because she is absolutely super as an aging actress who still knows a trick or two. She seems always “on stage” to her college-aged son and her producer-husband (Jeremy Irons). She is roughly pushed aside by a director and young ingenue. Then she pushes back! What fun!
American Beauty (1999) won the Best Picture Oscar and Kevin Spacey also won for Best Actor.  Annette Bening was nominated but lost to Angelina Jolie (for Girl, Interrupted). Ms. Bening’s portrayal of the wife and mother whose values have crumbled over time is stunning. I will not soon forget her interrupting a moment of tenderness with her husband to shriek, “That’s a $4,000 couch!” She is a microcosm of what it is too easy for us to become in this society.
Ms. Bening was also nominated for an Oscar for The Grifters (1990), losing out to Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost. In The Grifters she and Anjelica Huston are hustlers without a speck of morals who vie for John Cusak’s soul. None of these people have a shred of decency about them and will stop at nothing to get what they want. The movie has nice u-turns that fit the plot perfectly but keep us guessing.
A complete change of pace for Annette Bening is The American President (1995). She is a lovely lobbyist courted by storybook president Michael Douglas. He is a widower, she is unattached, this is pure Hollywood hokum (and enjoyment). The idea of a president of the United States getting back into dating is a funny concept and director Rob Reiner makes the most of it.
The unjustly ignored Richard III (1995) certainly belongs to Ian McKellen in the  
title role. But Annette Bening is captivating as Queen Elizabeth, whose husband and
sons are murdered by Richard’s agents of evil. Daringly updated to the 1930's, and abounding in Nazi thugs,  this is a splendid version of a very dark but captivating Shakespeare play. 
Ms. Bening played opposite her husband Warren Beatty in Bugsy (1991). She is the love interest of the gangster with the foresight to realize Las Vegas can be a goldmine for the Mob and especially for him. The couple emit plenty of sparks.
All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. None are suitable for children under 14.