Category Archives: Meryl Streep

2021, Academy Award Nominees, Adam McKay, Cate Blanchett, Comedy, Don't Look Up, Drama, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Rylance, Meryl Streep, Michael Chiklis, Rob Morgan, Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry

Don’t Look Up (2021)

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don't look up movie posterBest Picture nominee? Don’t Look Up? Really? This movie had a wide December release. It earned less than one million dollars at the box office and was out of the theaters in under two weeks. Its 56% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes further suggests that this is different from a film one would deem to be selected by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as one of its ten best films of 2021. Yet (sigh), here we are. The biggest tragedy might be that this isn’t a bad film but is unfairly getting bashed for its affiliation with the other nine movies up for Best Picture in arguably the worst collection of films for any year.

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2017, Academy Award Nominees, Alison Brie, Based on a True Story, Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Drama, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Meryl Streep, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sarah Paulson, Steven Spielberg, Suspense, The Post, Tom Hanks, Tracy Letts

The Post (2017)

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I was able to preview Steven Spielberg’s (Jaws, Saving Private Ryan) The Post two years before it was released to the public and even a year before it went into production. It was called Spotlight, and it won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was a fantastic movie. I wish I were more than kidding, and with that, I could be more positive about my viewing of what I hoped could be one of the year’s best movies. That was months ago when I only knew of the movie title and that it starred Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. In my head, I envisioned a movie about an army outpost and was very intrigued. But then I saw the preview, and I wished the movie would have been about a post office instead. Then, when I was halfway through the movie, I wished I had been watching a movie about a bedpost, a fence post, or any other post that would have represented something far less predictable and boring than the waste of talent and time that was being projected on the screen in front of me. It was one of those times (I’ve had many recently) when I was more than grateful to have a MoviePass. The thought of paying for some of these 2017 movies is even more terrifying than the disappointing IT, which was neither scary nor good. And, except for a couple of non-Oscar nominated movies that I am still looking forward to but have yet to see (Hostiles, The Florida Project), The Post successfully ends 2017, the worst year for movies this century.

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2002, Allison Janney, Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Jeff Daniels, John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Stephen Daldry, Stephen Dillane, The Hours, Toni Collette, Top 10 Movie of 2002

The Hours (2002)

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Oh, man, what a fantastic movie is. This was my second viewing of The Hours. I first watched it in 2010 and remember being extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would not have given this movie a chance back when it came out in 2002, but my interest in films has changed dramatically since then. Now, that’s not to say I still can’t enjoy a blockbuster (I watched Captain America: Civil War earlier in the same day and loved it). Still, I am much more into the human aspect of independent dramas like The Hours than I am about action movies or comedies. This movie deals with depression, a topic that I am, unfortunately, very familiar with. It does it from three different periods with three stories that are sometimes loose (and not so loosely) during others. This movie knotted Nicole Kidman (Cold Mountain, Rabbit Hole) with, surprisingly, just her third nomination to date (as of May 2016) and her first and only win. With a prosthetic nose, she was virtually unrecognizable as Virginia Woolf. But it wasn’t her physical characteristics that stood out. It was how she immersed herself in the role of a woman who you would think had it all but was so mentally troubled that she could not find any happiness in her life. An accomplished actress, this is the performance of her career in a movie that shouldn’t be missed by anybody who views life with a cup-half-empty sort of mentality.

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2015, Anne-Marie Duff, Based on a True Story, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Carey Mulligan, Drama, Helen Brohm Carter, Meryl Streep, Sarah Gavron, Suffragette

Suffragette (2015)

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I’m not entirely sure how Sarah Gavron’s (Village At The End Of The World, Brick Lane) Suffragette could have been a film that I truly enjoyed. I’m not the biggest fan of British historical dramas, and this was not a movie I went to see for enjoyment. It was a film I went to see just because I always try to see every movie that potentially could receive a nomination for a Best Six Academy Award. I think it’s unlikely that this film will get any recognition, but there was some buzz surrounding it before its release. In any regard, I knew this would be a movie I would end up seeing. Is it a bad movie? Not at all. It’s actually a very educational movie that has some above-average acting performances. But, unfortunately, it was very predictable (which I expected) and not nearly as riveting as it probably could have been (also something that I expected). Also, if you are hoping to experience the annual Meryl Streep (Doubt, The Devil Wears Prada) Oscar nomination, this isn’t it. She has all of one scene and is on the screen for less than two minutes.
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2007, Andrew Garfield, Derek Luke, Drama, Lions for Lambs, Meryl Streep, Michael Pena, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise

Lions for Lambs (2007)

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I think when I first saw the trailers for director Robert Redford’s (Quiz Show, A River Runs Through It) Lions for Lambs, I thought it was a movie I had to see. The previews made the film look exciting, and it was loaded with A-list actors. Well, when the commercials for the movie became 15-second clips after the first week and the movie scored a whopping 27% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the need to see it quickly waned. The movie earned just $15 million at the box office. Box office earnings don’t necessarily represent the quality of a film, but this movie hoped to garner a lot of money. While the production costs of this movie were low (I’ll explain below), stars like Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise commanded high-dollar figures for their appearances. This wasn’t a little indie movie. MGM produced this movie. On top of a film that was received so poorly by critics was a plot (stories about the war in the Middle East, especially political-driven ones) that had consistently kept moviegoers away back in the early 2000s. Lions for Lambs was a decent movie, but certainly not a great one. And it was by no means as exciting and as drama-filled as the trailers portrayed it to be. Lions for Lambs is a dialogue-driven movie and one that succeeds because it was chalked full of such great actors.
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