Ricki and the Flash

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It's hard to think of anything that Meryl Streep hasn't done in a career that goes all the way back to the 1970s. But with RICKI AND THE FLASH, we find out something brand new. She rocks! Literally! Re-teaming up with SILENCE OF THE LAMBS director Jonathan Demme (the two had worked together on Demme's 2004 updating of the 1962 Cold War classic THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, where she played Angela Lansbury's part), Streep stars as Ricki Randazzo, a wanted-to-be rock and roll star who had one brief moment of success in the 80s, but is now consigned to play out her strings (all six of them) out at the dingy Salt Well club in Tarzana with her band The Flash and her boyfriend (played by Rick Springfield, he of "Jessie's Girl" fame). But soon, she has a calling from Indianapolis; the family she left behind to follow her rock and roll dreams is rapidly falling apart, most noticeably in the suicidal tendencies of her daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer, who is Streep's real-life daughter), and her ex-husband (Kevin Kline, teaming with Streep for only the second time, the first being 1982's SOPHIE'S CHOICE) trying to hold things together with a new wife (Audra MacDonald). With real life intruding in, the collision of her love for performing and wanting to set things right with her family, Streep's character sometimes looks like she's closer to having a nervous breakdown than even her own daughter. But with Springfield's help, she comes to her daughter's wedding (with the band in tow, unbeknownst to the uptight, upper-crust crowd there who know very little of her past), and manages to redeem herself in a lot of great ways. Streep, who had done music-themed movies before (having done her own singing in 1990's POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, and portrayed a music teacher in 1999's MUSIC OF THE HEART), just doesn't seem capable of doing any wrong in films, and so it is sometimes quite easy to take her and her generation for granted (though contemporary Hollywood often seems to take that generation for granted way too many times). Playing Ricki, however, was quite a stretch for her all the same; and she manages to pull it off quite well, doing quite the job of playing acoustic and electric guitars and singing for this role in a way that, dare one say it, could have her in line for yet another Oscar nomination, if not another outright win. This shouldn't take away from the other great supporting performances, including Springfield, Kline (whose wryness and off-the-cuff humor are exceptionally refreshing), and MacDonald, let alone Gummer, who has some extremely interesting scenes with her mother (though reportedly they spent very little time together off the set during the making of the film per Demme's instructions). Demme's direction is also quite good (he refrains from doing the straight face-on shots of previous films); and the film features longtime Eagles/Joe Walsh backing musician Joe Vitale as the Flash's drummer, and a soundtrack that includes a lot of rock classics that Streep sings on her own (quite well, I would add). This is not a typical summer-movie flick with high-octane action (unless one considers Streep's stage presence an example of an "action" scene); and yet RICKI AND THE FLASH will likely end up being considered one of the best films of 2015. It's already one of mine, for sure.

i luv the movie

source: Ricki and the Flash