Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?
Well, yup. A lot of fans picked up our call to rank the sixteen Meryl Streep Oscar nominations thus far with number seventeen just around the corner. It was the best response ever outside of our typical prediction contests. We'll begin to reveal the breakdown after Golden Globe Madness (live blogging tonight... even though I'm sick. be here!) but I thought I'd share a little teaser.
UNDERSEEN
While The Film Experience readership who chooses to participate in polls is a self-selecting sample, according to our very scientific research (we asked you rank everything you'd seen) these are the golden ones that the least of you have laid eyes upon...
01. IRONWEED (1987) missing from 40% of ballots
02 (tie) THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) and MUSIC OF THE HEART (1999) were both missing from 30% of ballots
03. A CRY IN THE DARK (1988) missing from 28% of ballots
04. ONE TRUE THING (1998) missing from 25% of ballots
All the other films showed up on more than 75% of the ballots though The Deer Hunter and Silkwood didn't have nearly the viewership numbers I'd expected given the reputation of the films.
WIDELY ABSORBED
It's perhaps no surprise that one of Streep's all time biggest hits -- and a recent movie -- is the most seen. The Devil Wears Prada was only missing from 2% of the ballots.
TABULATING THE RESULTS...
I weighted the polls to favor those readers who had seen everything. This way underseen work, like, Ironweed as it turns out, wouldn't necessarily lose out to performances that everyone saw but nobody screamed "BEST!" about. The more you'd seen the more your vote was worth, though everyone's votes counted.
NO ONE'S FAVORITE / NO ONE'S LEAST FAVORITE
Though some performances lived up to their reputation as hugely divisive (hi Sister Aloysius Beauvoir in Doubt!) there were three performances that managed no first place finishes and two that managed to avoid last place on any one ballot.
No one's BEST: Ironweed (1987), Music of the Heart (1999) and Julie & Julia (2009)
In other words, once every 10 years Meryl does something that a lot of people like but no one absolutely cherishes above everything else she's ever done. Literally every other performance was someone's favorite #1.
No one's WORST: Sophie's Choice (1982) and Silkwood (1983). Literally every other performance was someone's least favorite among her nominated turns.
STAY TUNED... care to make any predictions?