It’s October which means that we’re ten episode deep in Only Murders in the Building, which means that this Meryl Streep list needed to be here sooner. Better late than never. La Streep also spent her time on stage, and theatre is, for the most part, ephemeral and difficult to rewatch for us future viewers. But thankfully, she did a lot of work in film, television, and even a web series. And that work keeps cinephiles, casual fans like me, and bigger fans fed. This list covers six decades of work, but I can only choose five.

Music of the Heart

I’ll talk about Streep’s place within certain pockets of cinema and television. But Music of the Heart, of all movies, belongs to a sub genre of films about mostly white teachers entering inner city, mostly racialized classrooms. The genre started maybe with Blackboard Jungle and maybe ended with The Class. The sub genre had an explosion during the 90s. And in Music from the Heart, from Wes Craven (?), has Meryl playing Roberta, teaching violin to kids in Harlem.

And context – Streep had a bit of a flop era between A Cry in the Dark and The Bridges of Madison County, the latter being a valid entry in any best of list. And most of the films during her first three decades has her playing a meek woman who comes into herself. And there’s traces of that here, but I like her loud. In playing Roberta, Streep has to call kids stupid but she does it without mostly hurting their feelings. Her line deliveries are direct without artifice here. She hesitated playing a witch until Into the Woods, but she channels a witch-y energy, changing these kids’ lives for the better. Also, as an inner city kid a teacher like her would have made a difference. Someone needs to put this movie back on STARZ.

Cr. Courtesy of Miramax

A Prairie Home Companion

Robert Altman’s last film takes viewers behind the scenes at the last broadcast of a public radio show that’s losing its funding. The film is a fictionalized version of the radio show with the same name. Problematic fave Garrison Keillor used to host it until his retirement in 2016. Here, Keillor’s character’s name is GK. Streep and Lily Tomlin play a sister act, Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson. Yolanda has a situationship with GK that she manages while raising her child (Lindsay Lohan).

So yes, I may be stealing one of Nick Davis’ answers when it comes to Streep, but the songs she and Tomlin sing about mothers feel like a bittersweet hug. The silky vocals that are coming out of this woman. Through Yolanda, she navigates the organized chaos of this show. And sometimes she’s the reason the chaos and the drama happens. She surprises her viewers with how seamless she can go from being a working professional to having all the emotions for all the world to hear. One can tell me that this is all improv or that she was following a script and I’d believe you. I’m an easy lob for laughs and her crash out live on air is funny too. A star in her own right, she also knows how to be just to be one member of an ensemble.

Cr. Courtesy of Sandcastle 5

Web Therapy – Getting It Straight and Desperate Measures

In Web Therapy, Dr. Fiona Wallace (Lisa Kudrow), plays a woman who does therapy sessions through the internet and she is hilariously bad at her job. This web series turned television series is the brainchild of Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky, and Don Roos. Other guest stars include Alan Cumming, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Molly Shannon, and Jennifer Aniston. Basically everyone from FRIENDS. One day someone will write a list of the best performances from that cast, but hopefully not me.

Here, Streep plays a ditzy Conservative anti-gay therapist, Camilla Bowner. Probably one of her most expressive work as she apologizes for being too loud even if she’s not. Comedy is hard, and she makes it look easy as her lines dance around on her tongue before delivering them. What’s also happening here is a power play between Camilla and Fiona, who uses Camilla’s services to turn her husband straight. This is the work of an actress who doesn’t take herself too seriously. She delivers effortless results in an atypical work. All she needs is half an hour and half of the screen to wow viewers in a work available on Youtube.

Cr. Courtesy of Showtime

Doubt 

Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep) is a school nun who makes an alliance with a novitiate Sister James (Amy Adams). A pressing matter is at hand for both of these nuns as they question relationships. Sister Aloysius notices Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) relationship with the school’s only Black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). She investigates Flynn while voicing her concerns with Donald’s mother Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis), who has her own insight about her child.

The Oscars are always a mess but a nomination for her here was one of the good things to happen that year. Yes, I did say I prefer Hathaway’s performance over her. However, rewatches for the purpose of this piece made me warm up to this again. The capital A acting film of that year, she’s both somehow loud and generous with this performance, letting her scene partners shine as much as she does. The screenplay here demands her to not say what she’s thinking until maybe a few minutes into the scene. But she makes viewers feel every conflicting emotion based on the information she’s getting. She can do a lot with the word ‘what’ and that ferocity coming out of a body that’s covered under a nun’s habit.

Cr. Courtesy of Miramax

Sophie’s Choice

Two years after the second World War, an aspiring novelist, Stingo (Peter MacNicol) goes to New York City. One of his new housemates is Nathan (Kevin Kline), a Jewish American who’s both loving and hotheaded. The target of his emotions is Sophie Ziwatoska (Streep), who herself has memories of the Nazi death camps.

I’m so boring of course this is THE performance on any list about Streep or about any actor in general. She’s basically playing two versions of Sophie. There’s the Kabuki version of a white woman who has to seduce to survive. And then there’s ‘real’ her, unvarnished, every emotion, specifically exhaustion showing in a place that doesn’t allow a person to fake things. The flashbacks have that one big scene when, light spoiler alert, Sophie makes a choice. But the America scenes are equally fascinating, a performance within a performance. She’s putting on a mask in front of the entire world, or at least two men who help her escape a haunting past.

Cr. Courtesy of Universal Pictures