Meryl Streep has another new movie out : this time she plays an aging rockstar who just abandoned her family to go have a good time in ‘RICKI AND THE FLASH’. The movie has received mixed reviews but as usual the critics are raving about her standout performance.
She also stars in the much anticipated movie ‘SUFFRAGETTE’ based on the events of the early feminist movement as they fought for the right to vote. If that is not enough she has just finished filming ‘FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS’, the true story of the infamous tone deaf aristocrat who couldn’t sing a single note in key but still hired Carnegie Hall to give a Recital.
Could this possibly be the year that she gets her 20th Academy Award Nomination, and maybe even win her 4th Oscar? The woman that many critics think is the worlds greatest living actress is just unstoppable. Here’s what we think constitutes her best work to date.
OUR TOP TEN MERYL STREEP MOVIES.
(In alphabetical order)
ANGELS IN AMERICA (2003): Technically this film of Tony Kushner’s stunning political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties is a TV mini series BUT it would remiss not to include this as Ms. Streep gave unforgettable performances as three different characters (including a male Rabbi) in a piece that is the defining play of that tragic moment in our history.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA (1998): In this adaption of Brian Friel’s play, set in rural Ireland in 1936 when times were very tough, Ms. Streep plays Kate a schoolteacher, and the oldest of 5 unmarried sisters and the one in charge of all their lives. She’s as strict with her siblings as she is with her pupils but always puts their happiness before her own.
DOUBT (2008): As Sister Aloysius Beauvier a Catholic school principal who questions a priest’s ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, Ms. Streep is all fire and brimstone with her unshakeable faith in a performance that netted her, and all three other actors in the film, Oscar Nominations.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) : As the wife and mother who walked out on both her husband and child, Ms. Streep is off the screen for a great deal of the movie, yet in this her breakthrough performance she wowed us all and won her very first Oscar.
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990): in this movie based on Carrie Fisher’s life, a young Ms. Streep brilliantly plays a substance addicted Hollywood actress who can only get a job if she agrees to live with her mother. Naturally the mother is worse than any recreational drug and the two have a tempestuous relationship that reflects the real drama queens that they are. Hard to believe now, but Shirley MacLaine played the mother.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982): Its hard to forget Ms. Streep’s compelling performance as the Polish Holocaust survivor who had lost both her children and is now residing in Brooklyn and trying to find a reason to want to live. It rightfully gained her a second Oscar.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995): Ms. Streep plays an Italian War Bride who in the 1960’s finds herself supplanted in an isolated farm house in Iowa and who, totally put of character, has a 4 day affair with a photographer just passing through. She gives a tender and passionate performance in this very touching romantic story.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006): As the monstrous fashion supremo a la Anna Wintour, Ms. Streep shines as the acerbic bitter genius who will stop at nothing to get things done her way. It is one of her most joyous performances ever.
THE HOURS (2002): In Stephen Daldry’s deeply moving film of Michael Cunningham’s book, Ms. Streep plays Clarissa a partnered lesbian who is caring for Richard, her best friend and ex lover, who is dying from the ravages of AIDS. After watching her performance in this great ensemble movie, there is not a single dry eye in the house.
THE IRON LADY (2011): Even though the critics were split over this controversial biopic, they did all at least agree that in portraying Margaret Thatcher. Ms. Streep had nailed the character of the late British PM so spot on. It was a riveting performance that snared her yet another Oscar.
