Her career might have devolved into bizarre pronouncements and gossip-page fodder, but in the mid-’90s, Courtney Love was the white-hot definition of pop-culture success. Live Through This, the raw and angry 1993 album by her band Hole, was an enormous critical and commercial hit. And while taking a break from the recording studio, Love found time to star in The People vs. Larry Flynt. It’s a meaty role — a stripper who finds happiness and despair as the wife of a crusading pornographer — and Love brings a startling level of sympathy to her energetic and thoughtful portrayal.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY PERFORMANCE(S): She showed real presence as Gretchen in 1985’s Sid and Nancy (before returning to her pre-music career as a stripper).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFfyGNIQzUk]