Meryl Streep talks about the former Washington Post publisher Katherine “Kay” Graham for her film, The Post.
Tag: Meryl Streep
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FILM REVIEW | The Post
Brilliantly observed and timely.
Nutshell: Steven Speilberg’s latest outing with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in the starring roles, is probably more important than we think. What with Trump’s constant attacks on the “fake news” media and the fight for women’s equality in the spotlight, The Post, shows how far, we haven’t come since the 70s.
The film focuses a moment in The Washington Post‘s history where it was published by a woman, Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep). She was and still is, one of the very few women of power in media. Watch Meryl talk about her character in The Post. When we look out at media ownership in the 20-teens, nothing much has changed in the 40 or so years that have passed. She successfully and bravely decided to publish articles about the Pentagon Papers, documents which described successive US Government’s dishonesty about the Vietnam War. The decision would ultimately lead to President Nixon barring The Washington Post from entering the White House ever again, which only hardened their resolve to hold power accountable.
Running Time: 116 minutes
Certificate: 12A
THEGAYUK Factor: It’s all about Meryl in this movie, once again proving that she is one of Hollywood’s most influential players. Streep plays Graham with sturdy fallibility – which is quite an achievement. There are moments of the Iron Lady, mixed with Miranda Priestly, with a mix of fragility.
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Sarah Paulson
Key Players: The dream team of Steven Spielberg working with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
Budget: Rumoured to be $50,000,000. This is a grower, not a shower. Opened to a limited release in the US late last year, with under $600,000 in receipts. So far it has grossed over $33,000,000 in the US, and with it opening worldwide this week, we expect this film to make a good little profit for the studios.
Best Bit: When Katherine Graham makes one of the most difficult decision to publish, Meryl’s acting positively seeps from every pore. Plus the end scene, it’s not a spoiler because The Washington Post‘s involvement in “Watergate” is well known, is a brilliant piece of timing and comedy.
Worst Bit: The way in which “the men in charge” would talk about their female boss, in earshot.
Little Secret: Having never worked with Speilberg, Meryl Streep was apparently “flabbergasted” that he never rehearses with his actors.
Further Viewing: All The President’s Men, Frost/Nixon, CitizenFourRating: ★★★★☆
ORDER The Post on DVD now from Amazon
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Top 10 Favourite Meryl Streep Movies
OUR TOP TEN FAVOURITE MERYL STREEP MOVIES.
(C) Depositiphotos(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 movies, 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):
It’s 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.
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FILM REVIEW | Florence Foster Jenkins – Some Of The Right Notes In All The Wrong Places
★★★★★ | Florence Foster Jenkins
CREDIT: PatheMeryl Streep shines in this touching tribute to the eccentricities of an ageing heiress.
Meryl Streep once again proves that she is one of the world’s greatest actors. This time Streep takes on the role of Florence Foster Jenkins, the ‘world’s worst opera singer’, who was a rich New York heiress who lived from 1868 to 1944.
Florence Foster Jenkins was an incredibly successful performer within her own Vaudeville circuit, owning the audience with her incredible tableaux’s. However she feels that her musicality (she was a child prodigy piano player, until illness robbed her of her ability to use her left hand) is being stymied. The larger than life character of Foster Jenkins decides that she wants to take up opera again, the problem is that she can’t sing, well at least to the ears that are around her. Whether she didn’t know this or refused to accept it is lost in the annals of history, but Foster-Jenkins was a force to be reckoned with, who once made a decision stuck to it doggedly, right to its conclusion.
After hearing a young Soprano, she sets about making her life-long dream to play at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, a reality. She hires a pianist, expertly portrayed by Simon Helberg (The Big Band Theory) and one of the world’s greatest vocal coaches (David Haig) and along with her Yes Man husband/manager played by a doting Hugh Grant, who pays off critics and audience members to enjoy Foster-Jenkins’ performances, Foster-Jenkins sets herself up for a mighty fall.
Once again Meryl Streep proves that her acting is all in the eyes. She plays the ageing Foster-Jenkins with a delicacy that is truly touching and shows how poignant an actor she is. Streep manages to bring hilarity and tragedy into one role. As she flings herself into one of opera’s most demanding arias, the Queen Of The Night, she takes on a Patricia Routledge (Keeping Up Appearances) form, yet is able to truly showcase the depth of Foster Jenkins musings and sheer love of life and ‘anything is possible’ attitude. We could all learn a thing or two from Foster-Jenkins. Hugh Grant perfectly plays his usual suave, English highly impotent secondary character allowing Streep’s magnificent talent to shine through.
Directed by Stephen Frears and written by Nicholas Martin, this faithful retelling of the famous opera singer that never was, is a laugh out loud, poignant look back at a forgotten era.
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Meryl Streep Takes On Gaga’s Bad Romance
We love a bit of Meryl Streep but not when she’s singing… Okay only that time in Death Becomes Her, but that is it.
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James Corden Is The Next Big Big Thing
Getting the job of hosting The Late Late Show on American TV is a Big Big thing and when Britain’s own James Corden was picked, the whole country just said ‘who is he?”
On Monday night they certainly found out as very tongue-in-cheek Corden started off his very first show with a hilarious video showing how he ended up in one of the hottest seats in TV.
Leslie Moonves the President of CBS is decides the fairest way to find someone for this most coveted job is to slip a golden ticket in a random candy bar and who ever finds it gets to be the host. Luckily for James he happens to pick up the winning ticket Chelsea Handler when drops it and he embarks on a grueling training schedule run by a host of Hollywood A List stars, culminating with Meryl Streep who try to get the Brit into shape.
Check out the video and see why next morning the news media gave James Corden rave reviews for his performance and declared this relative unknown to be such an excellent choice as the new host.