Maclean's magazine's Barbara Wickens wrote, "Cher has emerged as probably the most fascinating movie star of her generation ... [because] she has managed to be at once boldly shocking and ultimately enigmatic."
New York Post movie critic David Edelstein attributes Cher's "top-ranking star quality" to her ability of projecting "honesty, rawness and emotionality.
She wears her vulnerability on her sleeve."
Jeff Yarbrough of The Advocate wrote that Cher was "one of the first superstars to 'play gay' with compassion and without a hint of stereotyping", as she portrays a lesbian in the 1983 film Silkwood.

Author Yvonne Tasker, in her book Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema (2002), notes that Cher's film roles often mirrors her public image as a rebellious, sexually autonomous, and self-made woman.
In her films, she recurrently serves as a social intermediary to disenfranchised male characters, such as Eric Stoltz's Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia victim in Mask (1985), Liam Neeson's mute homeless veteran in Suspect (1987), and Nicolas Cage's socially isolated baker with a wooden hand in Moonstruck (1987).
Film critic Kathleen Rowe wrote of Moonstruck that the depiction of Cher's character as "a 'woman on top' [is] enhanced by the unruly star persona Cher brings to the part'".

For Moonstruck, Cher was ranked 1st on Billboard's list of "The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies", and her performance was described as "the standard by which you mentally check all others".
Moonstruck was acknowledged by the American Film Institute as the eighth best romantic comedy film of all time.

Cher's public image is also reflected in her music videos and live performances, in which she "repeatedly comments on her own construction, on her search for perfection and on the performance of the female body", wrote Tasker.
Unlike other acts of that time, who often featured female backers mimicking the singer's performance, Cher uses a male dancer dressed as her in the 1992 concert video Cher at the Mirage; author Diane Negra commented, "In authorizing her own quotation, Cher acknowledges herself as fictionalized production, and proffers to her audience a pleasurable plurality."
James Sullivan of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Cher is well aware that her chameleonic glitz set the stage for the current era of stadium-size razzle-dazzle.
She's comfortable enough to see such imitation as flattery, not theft."
American singer Pink, who is recognized by her acrobatic stage presence, started studying Aerial silks after watching Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in 2004.

Cher was ranked 17th on VH1's list of the "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era".
The 1980 video for "Hell on Wheels" involves cinematic techniques and was one of the first music videos ever.
Deemed "controversial" for her performance on a Navy warship, straddling a cannon, and wearing a leather thong that revealed her tattooed buttocks, the 1989 music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" was the first ever to be banned by MTV.
Maclean's magazine's Barbara Wickens wrote, "Cher has emerged as probably the most fascinating movie star of her generation ... [because] she has managed to be at once boldly shocking and ultimately enigmatic." New York Post movie critic David Edelstein attributes Cher's "top-ranking star quality" to her ability of projecting "honesty, rawness and emotionality. She wears her vulnerability on her sleeve." Jeff Yarbrough of The Advocate wrote that Cher was "one of the first superstars to 'play gay' with compassion and without a hint of stereotyping", as she portrays a lesbian in the 1983 film Silkwood.
Author Yvonne Tasker, in her book Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema (2002), notes that Cher's film roles often mirrors her public image as a rebellious, sexually autonomous, and self-made woman. In her films, she recurrently serves as a social intermediary to disenfranchised male characters, such as Eric Stoltz's Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia victim in Mask (1985), Liam Neeson's mute homeless veteran in Suspect (1987), and Nicolas Cage's socially isolated baker with a wooden hand in Moonstruck (1987). Film critic Kathleen Rowe wrote of Moonstruck that the depiction of Cher's character as "a 'woman on top' [is] enhanced by the unruly star persona Cher brings to the part'".
For Moonstruck, Cher was ranked 1st on Billboard's list of "The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies", and her performance was described as "the standard by which you mentally check all others". Moonstruck was acknowledged by the American Film Institute as the eighth best romantic comedy film of all time.
Cher's public image is also reflected in her music videos and live performances, in which she "repeatedly comments on her own construction, on her search for perfection and on the performance of the female body", wrote Tasker. Unlike other acts of that time, who often featured female backers mimicking the singer's performance, Cher uses a male dancer dressed as her in the 1992 concert video Cher at the Mirage; author Diane Negra commented, "In authorizing her own quotation, Cher acknowledges herself as fictionalized production, and proffers to her audience a pleasurable plurality." James Sullivan of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Cher is well aware that her chameleonic glitz set the stage for the current era of stadium-size razzle-dazzle. She's comfortable enough to see such imitation as flattery, not theft." American singer Pink, who is recognized by her acrobatic stage presence, started studying Aerial silks after watching Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in 2004.
Cher was ranked 17th on VH1's list of the "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era". The 1980 video for "Hell on Wheels" involves cinematic techniques and was one of the first music videos ever. Deemed "controversial" for her performance on a Navy warship, straddling a cannon, and wearing a leather thong that revealed her tattooed buttocks, the 1989 music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" was the first ever to be banned by MTV.
Cher