Leave it to Meryl Streep to transform a supporting role into a concentrated layer (Big Little Lies, season 2) and a lead role into an erudite figure worthy of every scene from A-Z (cast your mind back to The Devil Wears Prada).
Widely considered the greatest actress of our generation (of all time to some extent), Streep has undilutedly powered through from the Golden Age of Hollywood to modern time where streaming platforms rub shoulders with film studios.
Synonymous to the title ‘Most’ in Hollywood, Streep’s almost five-decade resume is one that basically catches the eye of every A-lister. Having won three Academy Awards out of 21 nominations and eight Golden Globe Awards out of 34 nominations, Meryl holds on record as the most nominated actress in the history of both ceremonies. She again doubles as the most nominated actress at the BAFTAs (15 nominations, though not British), most awarded actress at the Globe, and is one award away from tying with Katherine Hepburn for the highest number of Oscar wins (4).
Beginning her career on Broadway with the 1975 project ‘Trelawny of the ‘Welles”, her ascension into the beloved actress closet was ignited by her second feature film ‘The Deer Hunter’, where she played Linda, the love interest of Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro’s characters Nick and Michael. It was a confidently executed picture about three friends whose lives become intercepted by screams of torture and violence from the enemy camp after partaking in the US-Vietnam war. Streep’s visible performance in the supporting role afforded her a best supporting actress Oscar win at the back of the film’s best picture trophy.
Sustaining her charm and delight in subsequent years, Streep’s update on the big screen portfolio involved classics that invented cult sayings and references that continue to maneuver through appreciated shows and films of present-day Hollywood.
Her brutal drama ‘Sophie’s Choice’ filmed in 1982 is always on speed dial in pictures that centre around uncertainty of choice and decision. Likewise, the historic line ‘A dingo ate my baby’ uttered by real-life figure Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in the investigative case of Azaria Chamberlain’s death in 1980 was reinvented by Streep in the 1988 movie ‘A Cry in the Dark’ giving it much international exposure. The then two-times Oscar winner paraphrased in one of the scenes saying ‘The dingo’s got my baby!”, while portraying Chamberlain in the most depressed state ever.
Although not a regular player on the small screen, Streep’s few works have received praise and reviews equal to her big screen charm. From ‘Holocaust’ to ‘Big Little Lies’ season 2, Streep is inarguably the best on both sides.
Dedicating the entirety of June to Streep’s unprecedented career, we have lined up below 10 of her 70s, 80s, and 90s film works as well as four of her popular television works for our weekend watch list this week.
FILMS
‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978)
SYNOPSIS: In the backdrop of the US-Vietnam war, three friends who join the army to fight in Vietnam are later captured by the enemy forces. They manage to escape but are soon separated and imprisoned again.
DIRECTOR: Michael Cimino
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘Kramer Vs. Kramer’ ‘1979’
SYNOPSIS: Disinterested workaholic Ted develops a special bond with his son, Billy, after his wife Joanna walks out on them. However, Joanna soon returns, demanding full custody of their son.
DIRECTOR: Robert Benton
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ (1981)
SYNOPSIS: Charles, a biologist, falls in love with an outcast woman. The woman’s melancholia forces her to leave Charles after a passionate affair.
DIRECTOR: Karel Reisz
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘Manhattan’ (1979)
SYNOPSIS: Director Woody Allen’s love letter to New York City stars Allen as frustrated television writer Isaac Davis, a twice-divorced malcontent facing middle age alone after his wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), leaves him for a woman. Isaac is dating fresh-faced Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a high school girl he knows is wrong for him, and begins to wonder if he and brainy writer Mary (Diane Keaton), the mistress of his best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy), might make a better couple.
DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
AVAIIABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘Sophie’s Choice’ (1982)
SYNOPSIS: Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her lover Nathan (Kevin Kline), he learns that Sophie is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan’s relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan’s fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.
DIRECTOR: Alan J. Pakula
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Netflix
‘Silkwood’ (1983)
SYNOPSIS: Karen works at the Oklahoma nuclear plant and raises her voice after she finds out that the working conditions are not safe. She finds herself in the middle of a controversy which leads to her death.
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Netflix
‘Out of Africa’ (1985)
SYNOPSIS: Initially set on being a dairy farmer, the aristocratic Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) travels to Africa to join her husband, Bror (Klaus Maria Brandauer), who instead spends their money on a coffee plantation. After discovering Bror is unfaithful, Karen develops feelings for hunter Denys (Robert Redford), but realizes he prefers a simplistic lifestyle compared to her upper class background. The two continue on until a series of events force Karen to choose between her love and personal growth.
DIRECTOR: Sydney Pollack
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Netflix
‘Heartburn’ (1986)
SYNOPSIS: Rachel Samstat (Meryl Streep), a New York food critic, beds Mark Forman (Jack Nicholson), a Washington, D.C., newspaper columnist. The two fall in love, and Rachel relinquishes her job and relocates to be with a man who views himself as unfit for marriage. They try to build a life together — literally — as they struggle with the construction crews renovating their home. When Rachel gets pregnant, Mark is enthusiastic, but then soon begins doubting whether he could be a family man.
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘A Cry in the Dark’ (1988)
SYNOPSIS: Lindy’s perfect life turns upside-down, when she is falsely convicted for the murder of her two-month-old baby, Azaria, who is killed by a dingo.
DIRECTOR: Fred Schepisi
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime Video
‘Death Becomes Her’ (1992)
SYNOPSIS: A writer and an actress hate each other for years as they have a crush on the same man. They secretly drink a miracle cure which prevents ageing, but discover that they have turned immortal.
DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Netflix
TV SHOWS
‘BIG LITTLE LIES’ (SEASON 2)
SYNOPSIS: Madeline, Celeste and Jane are a trio of wealthy young women in Monterey, California. Their lives are shattered when a murder takes place in their idyllic town, unravelling a can of worms.
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: HBO Max
‘HOLOCAUST’
SYNOPSIS: Michael Moriarty, Meryl Streep and Blanche Baker star in a 1978 miniseries about two families, one Jewish, in Nazi Germany.
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Amazon Video
‘ANGELS IN AMERICA‘
SYNOPSIS: Gay lovers Louis and Prior break up when Prior is diagnosed with AIDS. Meanwhile, Hannah, who is Mormon, struggles to come to terms with her son’s sexuality.
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: Hulu
‘WEB THERAPY’ (SEASON 2)
SYNOPSIS: Lisa Kudrow stars in this part-scripted, part-improvised comedy series about a self-professed psychotherapist with little patience for her patients. Dr. Fiona Wallice, who has no discernible training, doesn’t believe in the traditional 50-minute sessions most therapists have with their patients. She prefers to meet with her clients in weekly three-minute sessions, through an online webcam. Even in the short sessions, Wallice spends more time feigning boredom and interrupting than listening to the patient’s issues. A number of well-known actors, including Jane Lynch (“Glee”), guest star on the show as Wallice’s patients.
AVAILABLE TO WATCH: YouTube
