Meryl Streep Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Their Best Role: Meryl Streep
Filed under: Romance », Fandom »
Welcome to a new series here on Cinematical where we select an actor or actress and the role we think is their all time best.
Last August, "Meryl Streep" wrote an op-ed piece for The Onion called "Name One Masterpiece Of Cinema That I've Starred In." It was really written by the Onion staff, of course, but they (and Streep) made a good point. For a woman who is very possibly the finest living actor of any sex, she has made very few truly unforgettable films. Her resume doesn't contain anything quite like Rear Window, The Godfather, Chinatown or Pulp Fiction. Case in point: the article brings up Kramer vs. Kramer. "Streep" says "I'd watch it if it were on," but it isn't really a masterpiece. Also, it's more Dustin Hoffman's movie than Streep's movie, and if you look at it that way, it ranks pretty far down on Hoffman's list of classics.
Streep's two best bona-fide classics are without a doubt Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979) and Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), but she has only tiny roles in both. Despite Streep's excellence, films like The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Sophie's Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983), Out of Africa (1985), Plenty (1985), Ironweed (1987), A Cry in the Dark (1988), Marvin's Room (1996), One True Thing (1998), Music of the Heart (1999) or The Hours (2002) aren't exactly compulsively watchable, nor do they turn up on very many lists of favorite films. You could also eliminate her comedies like She-Devil (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990) and Death Becomes Her (1992), and her recent string of lightweight hits like The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Mamma Mia! (2008).
AFI Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Festival Reports », Fox Searchlight », George Clooney », Other Festivals »
It's not hard to like any movie that uses the Beach Boys' music, but Wes Anderson makes it especially easy. As Hollywood's foremost purveyor of hipster drama, his pedigree as a reliable selector of appropriately wistful, poignant and all-around unforgettable songs is virtually unrivaled, but Fantastic Mr. Fox exceeds even the work of his earlier films, using "Heroes and Villains," and later, "I Get Around" as populist punctuation that manages to be both specifically relevant and substantively rousing.
As an animated opus, the film is by necessity his most controlled to date, a painstakingly-designed dollhouse where he no longer controls just the music, sets, and costumes, but the performers themselves. Ironically, however, it feels like his loosest as well - a gloriously unwieldy comedy of manners submerged in the minutiae of Anderson's madcap creativity. All of which makes Fantastic Mr. Fox a celebration both of its stop-motion medium and Anderson's aesthetic, while still managing to fully document the spectacular fun in original author Roald Dahl's daffy, distinctive imagination.
Did Wes Anderson Direct 'Fox' by E-Mail?
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Drama », New Releases », Fox Searchlight », Family Films »
I know that directors sometimes must direct scenes from a room separate and sometimes distant from the actors, but directing from another country? By e-mail? That's the story filtering out of England, where Fantastic Mr. Fox, the new adult-skewing animated movie from Wes Anderson featuring voice work by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray, is set to have its world premiere at the London Film Festival on Wednesday. According to Chris Lee, reporting in Los Angeles Times, Anderson had no desire to spend a year at Three Mills Studio in London during the physical production of the stop-motion animated project. Instead, the director 'holed up' in Paris for most of the time. His move and his exacting requirements did not endear him to all of his crew. "He has made our lives miserable," Mark Gustafson, the film's director of animation, said. Anderson asserts that he was trying to make something different. "The movie would not be the way I wanted it if I just did it the way people were accustomed to doing it. I realized this is an opportunity to do something nobody's ever seen before." And not everyone was upset about Anderson's absence. Producer Allison Abbate said absent directors aren't unusual in the field: "Making stop-motion is like watching paint dry."
After sending digital files of what they were working on, the animators received "detailed e-mail instructions about what to change" from Anderson, who also acted out certain scenes for them as reference material. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and we'll get to see for ourselves soon enough. After London, the film will have its North American premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on October 30, before Fox Searchlight opens it on November 13.
Most Profitable Star: Naomi Watts
Filed under: Newsstand »
In this time of economic uncertainty and the potential evaporating of the old, reliable Hollywood star system, some math nerds may have saved the jobs of ten lucky actresses. Forbes Magazine has recently completed its annual list of female stars that provide the most bang for the buck. Their poll process is pretty complex. To qualify, actors must have appeared in at least three movies over the past five years that opened on 500 screens or more. Someone then adds up and averages the actors' salary on each film, each film's budget and each film's final gross. This year's winner: Naomi Watts, who earned $44 for each $1 she was paid. Despite starring in interesting movies like The Painted Veil, Funny Games and Eastern Promises, it looks as if Watts' place on the list was snagged mostly by King Kong, which earned $550 million worldwide.
Meryl Streep Movies Can Save the Economy!
Filed under: Classics », Fandom », Newsstand », Summer Movies »
We know that Meryl Streep can rock any role she's given, and save any movie that she graces with her legendary talent. Accents, ABBA songs, and aspics, she does it all with shocking ease. But here's something I bet you didn't know: she's an economic powerhouse. While Hollywood wrings their hands and wonders how to market "to women," and is convinced all ladies want is The Ugly Truth, Streep has been single-handedly turning everyone a profit. The Independent calls it "The Streep Effect" and notes that she has a Midas touch not only at the box office, but for book sales and tourism. Julie and Julia has single-handledly sent Mastering the Art of French Cooking back onto bestseller lists. (Though the Independent doesn't mention it, Child's My Life in France is selling just as briskly, as is Julie Powell's Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.) There's also been a boom in French cooking classes and cookware sales as people set out to cook their way to a perky hybrid of Streep, Amy Adams, and Julia Child.
And that's only the most recent example! Mamma Mia! resulted in hundreds of couples flocking to marry on the Greek island of Skopelos, with flights up 13% after the movie's release. Lest you think that was just due to the jaw-dropping seaside scenery, a similar effect happened with Out of Africa. Kenya received 152,000 overseas visitors in 1985, a number that climbed to 176,000 in 1986.
Streep + Martin + Baldwin = 'It's Complicated' Trailer
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Universal », Trailers and Clips »
Oh, Nancy Meyers. I thought The Holiday was endless pap, full of admittedly charming actors in predictable situations over the length of a Quentin Tarantino WWII riff or Michael Mann crime drama, and man, was I pleasantly surprised by Something's Gotta Give for precisely the first half before Diane Keaton's extended crying fit signaled the end of something playful and the beginning of something painful.But this could be cute, this It's Complicated of yours. The trailer seems to suggest as much. Meryl Streep (in her third film of the year come Christmas time) finds herself torn between the renewed flame of her ex (Alec Baldwin) and the flirtations of her architect (Steve Martin). You know what, that actually seems surprisingly simple despite its title, and middle-aged romance is certainly in your wheelhouse, so the benefit of the doubt is indeed yours.
If I can just make one small request: keep it short. Keep it simple. The natural charm of even a cast like this can only go so far. Don't wear it out. Be romantic. Be comedic. And then leave us be. That'd be a gift I'd cherish above most.
Review: Julie & Julia
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Theatrical Reviews », Summer Movies »
Movies with food-related themes at their core have always appealed to me: I like eating, I like watching movies, why not combine the two? Julie & Julia does so quite deftly, resulting in a lighthearted comedy that's very easy to like. And these days, a movie with intelligent humor and masterful comic performances is hard to find, so that should be enough to satisfy me. And it very nearly was, although I didn't feel quite appeased afterwards.
Nora Ephron directed the comedy, adapting two stories and squashing them together: Julie Powell cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 2002 as detailed on her blog and in her book Julie and Julia; and Julia Child going from bored housewife in Paris to cookbook co-author, as detailed in the book My Life in France.
'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Trailer Looks Pretty Good At The Very Least
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Family Films », George Clooney », Trailers and Clips »
A few months ago, a good friend of mine saw a test screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox (no 'The') and described it as very much the union between Roald Dahl's story and Wes Anderson's style. Now, it looks like the trailer up on Yahoo! and after our jump confirms as much, and I actually find myself genuinely charmed by it -- like, 'now on my radar' charmed.This tale of a sly fox (voiced by George Clooney, natch) taking on some grumpy farmers reminded me a great deal of Chicken Run, if it were inspired less by The Great Escape and more by Ocean's Eleven, and while it does look perfectly family-friendly, it really does seem to be a Wes Anderson film through and through -- only Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman are all talking animals in stop-motion. (Hell, it's probably the most animated Murray's been in years!)
(Pun half-intended.)
Also starring Meryl Streep and apparently released by Fox proper (as opposed to Fox Searchlight), Fantastic Mr. Fox is due to open on November 13th.
'Out of Africa' All Boils Down to a Stuffed Bra
Filed under: Casting », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy »
There is no one quite like Meryl Streep. When it comes to actresses, she's the powerhouse. She's earned 15 Academy Award nominations, 2 wins, and the respect and admiration of pretty much everyone. But get this...
By 1985, Streep had already been nominated for five Oscars, and won for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice, but that wasn't enough for director Sydney Pollack. As WENN reports, he didn't think Meryl was sexy enough to star in Out of Africa. So, as IMDb's trivia notes -- she showed up in a low-cut blouse and push-up bra. But that's not all:
"I did this thing once when I was auditioning for Out of Africa because I had done some movies but I wasn't famous enough to get this big part. The director at of the film, Sydney Pollack, let it be known to my agent at the time he didn't think I was sexy enough to play Isak Dinesen, the Danish writer who was like 50 when she published her first book. So I went and got a sweet little dress at my local (discount retailer) K-Mart. It went off the shoulders, and I took a lot of paper towels and I stuffed my bra, so it would mound up. Yeah (it worked) I got the part."
Yes, because I see Isak Dinesen and think: "Sexpot!" Smooth move, Pollack! Just goes to show you that even talent can't beat the power of large breasts -- even if they are a little crinkly.
CONTEST: Win Tickets to See 'Julie & Julia' Early
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Fandom », Exhibition », Contests »
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It's that time again -- time to throw down a comment and potentially win a pair of tickets to an advanced screening of a film that's slowly turning up the heat. Cinematical has been handed 10 pairs of tickets to a super secret advanced screening of Julie & Julia in New York City on Monday, August 3rd. The film, which stars Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, follows the lives of two aspiring cooks trying to find purpose in their lives: Julie Powell and the legendary Julia Child. Based on two bestselling novels, Powell's "Julie & Julia" and "My Life in France," by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme, Julie & Julie intertwines the lives of these women through their ups and downs as each targets their own passion with fearless determination and pride.
As with our other ticket contests, all you need to do is leave us a comment telling us why you'd like to go see Julie and Julia in New York City on Monday, August 3rd. You have until Thursday July 30th at 5pm to enter a comment. We'll then randomly choose 10 commenters, and each will receive one pair of tickets to the screening. In order to enter, you will need to live in and around the New York City area, and you will also need to provide your own transportation to and from the theater.
For official rules, head after the jump. Julie and Julia hits theaters nationwide on August 7.
Oh, and Bon Appetite!
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