STREEPS OF FIRE: MERYL INDECISIVE
Manage episode 352411343 series 2854826
STREEPS OF FIRE: SOPHIE'S CHOICE & DOUBT
TRIGGER WARNING: Doubt's central plot is whether or not a priest had inappropriate relations with a child and that is discussed.
Two of the best performances of Streep's career from two different decades. This is the episode where we truly extol Streep's brilliance in drama in two of her very best.
SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) was Streep's coming out party. Released months after the middling STILL OF THE NIGHT, covered a few episodes ago, Choice would begin six years of dominance for Streep as our greatest "serious" actress. Based on William Styron's award winning novel, Sophie's Choice also features what may be Kevin Kline's best performance ever. Alan J. Pakula (Klute, Parallax View, All The President's Men) directs and adapted the novel. A lovely adaptation. This is a heavy film with weighty themes but, dang it, the acting is so damn good. We have a lot to dig into.
DOUBT (2008) is the screen version of John Patrick Shanley's (Moonstruck) pulitzer-prize winning play of the same name, adapted and directed by Shanley himself. It's set in the early 1960s with Amy Adams playing Sister James at a catholic elementary school. She brings concerns about Philip Seymour Hoffman's kindly priest, Father Flynn, and his unusual relationship with an African American student to Streep's Sister Aloysius, who has seen this kind of thing happen before. It goes down, y'all! Big time actors acting in scenes so well-written you'll wonder why you put up with so many badly written movies. Three of the best actors around in a film geared to cause conversation. Did he or didn't he? What is the nature of doubt? Is doubt a more noble trait than certainty? A lot to chew on. Hoffman is dearly missed and gives a brilliantly cagey performance while Streep is as good as she has ever been on film.
The whole Streep gang, Ken, Jack, Thomas and Andi are here this week to talk these landmark heavy duty Streep films and performances.
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Ken: Ken Koral
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