YNMS: Ricki & The Flash
Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 7:00AM Before we get to the trailer, quick uncensored thoughts as they come to me regarding the poster and some new images so it's several posts in one after the jump...
Oh, girl. I'm ready! I've been ready.
"why is no one rehd-dee"?
I love women of a certain age in braids. It's so hippie chic.
...actually I love women of all ages in braids. And select men, too.
or at least Cary Fukunaga
For some reason I don't think Miranda Priestley would like this outfit but Andie would. Didn't Andie wear something dark and chainy in The Devil Wears Prada? With smokey eye.
Always Meryl singing. Always The Hours. Always the smokey eye.
Every time that Jonathan Demme makes a movie with a great starring female role, I feel bad that his working relationship with Michelle Pfeiffer -- who he raved and raved about after working with her for Married to the Mob -- didn't extend beyond 1988. He clearly wanted to work with her immediately again but she said "no" to Silence of the Lambs and it appears he never asked again. A part of me can see her in this role.
One thing that's great about Meryl Streep is you get the sense that she doesn't care about "acting her age" so she's kind of perfect casting for this aging female rocker role. The media and public doesn't mind Streep doing crazy "young" things either which is weird because they're so vicious to every other aging female celebrity who risks doing anything youthful. (sigh)
I rode an elevator with Rick Springfield two years ago and I stupidly asked him if he was Rick Springfield even though I knew he was. He was super polite about it but afterwards I felt like such a jerk. I did not ask him about this movie because at the time I didn't know he was making it which was probably for the best.
Is he making obscene dirty dancing moves here or pretending to play guitar for Ricki? Is he "The Flash"? No, not that one.
Do younger readers know who he is? Those of us who lived through the 80s do but I can't keep track of which 80s stars prompt "who?" from millenials and younger. I really can't. Sometimes it totally surprises me who people know and who they don't. Show of hands in the comments please.
[quick IMDb check] Rick Springfield has never been nominated for an Oscar but I wonder if he writes any song for this movie? I think he wrote something for a movie in the 80s once. "Hard to Hold" maybe?
Mamie Gummer was at this party I went to recently and she was tiny, like the skinniest thing. I did not speak with her but I immediately flashed to that awful lizard girl tattoo torture she went through in American Horror Story: Freakshow.
One thing that's weird about casting either of Meryl's actual actress daughters as her daughters in any film is that they look so much like her that it will suddenly be really weird to see anybody else playing her daughters in other films.
Do you think Henry Wolfe, Meryl's musician son, will be weirded out watching her play a rocker? Do you think her kids see her films? (P.S. his music is good.)
This photo. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
OKAY. That trailer. Let's watch!
The way Yes No Maybe So works is self-explanatory. BUT in this case since I'm a big "yes" it's more of a... well, it's a tradition that must be honored.
Yes
• It's great that Meryl sounds a little hoarse and low in these scenes... She's always had a very expressive voice but sometimes its less so when doing contemporary American parts.
• The cast Demme has assembled here is pretty compelling. Audra McDonald - hello!?! Yes please. Though it'll be weird to see her in a music picture and not hear her sing.
• "Mom, you're here. It's like the 80s all over again."
• That leg kick. Oh, Meryl. Never stop being a ham.
No
• Visually it looks kinda blah from these images? Which is... I was hoping for a little more pep from Demme
• If this is going to be all about shaming a career woman and creative personality for not being more traditionally stay-at-home maternal, it's going to be unfortunate and possibly even tremendously obnoxious.
Maybe So
• The trailer is probably trying to be sentimental and crowd-pleasing and heteronormative as possible for maximum box office appeal... but Diablo Cody can deliver a sharp bite with her screenplays and Demme is usually a little more off center. Are they weirdly negating each other? Or is the trailer sanding off their edges that are still in play in the actual movie?
• We're not hearing enough of the music to tell us whether that'll be stirring and a bonus for the movie though Meryl singing usually is.
Mom you're here. It's like the 80s all over again."
If I didn't love Meryl and Audra and Jonathan Demme I might not be excited but I do x 3 so I am. YES.
How about you?
P.S. if you haven't seen it, check out the new Best Actress chart and the first big Best Actress 2015 discussion
Reader Comments (82)
This looks very commercial but hopefully Meryl is great but from the trailer I quite liked her daughter more and Audra,20 Nominations,i dunno,GG definitely.
Agree on Pfeiffer I don't wanna rock the age agenda but Meryl seems a might to senior for the role or is the styling off,Yes 'cos it's Meryl can't say the story is fresh though and for it to work all the relatisonships Meryl has with everyone will have to be very clear and different.
YES. This is the most excited I've been for a Streep movie in a long time. Mamie's part looks really meaty, too (could she get an Oscar nom?).
sophie's choice reunion! it's like the 80s all over again
i wonder if rikki's relationship with her daughter recovers or if she'll go to that wedding she'd not invited to..?
[watches trailer - saves the price of a ticket]
Is anyone else excited about the soundtrack? I mean Meryl covering Lady Gaga and all...
Hey Jenny Lewis writing music sells me. (Too bad she probably won't jump in front of the camera to extend that "it's the 80s all over again" quality.)
I LOVE Meryl and want her to equal Katharine Hepburns record 4 Oscar wins.
However hasn't she done this role one before? Remember Marvin's Room was about a mother who abandons here child and then comes back?
Sorry - I think this time Meryl WILL NOT BE NOMINATED.
She won't even get a supporting nod for her cameo in Sufffragette.
Sadly when she almost stood up for Patricia Arquette's acceptance speech she alienated the rightwing conservative members of the Academy.
Danny Aiello, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood and Doris Day will NEVER vote for Meryl EVER!
Oy, that trailer. I mean, I'm still gonna see it, obviously, but... oy...
Yes for Meryl of course but this trailer just doesn't look good. Hope Springs had a bad trailer too and the movie turned out to be enjoyable.
How To Get Away With Murder should be the title of Meryl's memoir. The least interesting personality to become a thing in pop culture and the movies. The trailer gives everything away plot point wise. No reason to actually spend money on this crap. Definite if I feel like watching the pirated screener I will.
Bette Streep you live in a weird world where you think people write such things down with a side note of "I'll never vote for her again" LOL
I am on the yes for the people involved and especially happy for Audra effin' McDonald. So glad to see her in the trailer. I don't understand how Hollywood has not discovered her and put her in llots of movies. Girl needs to work on her EGOT, people!
I get the feeling they are hiding something, the sharp edges, in this preview. Maybe I am wrong but I do get a sense there's more to it and they are keeping it cute to sell tickets.
What a generic trailer; visually bland, bad songs (do they expect us to believe they were/are the shit with those shit songs?). And it looks mawkishily cloyingly sentimental, lifetime movie of the week. Barf.
AND they chose the wrong real life daughter, Grace Gummer is the better actress. Prettier, too.
FUCK NO!
It's dissappointing to almost never have a movie in which a character uses the help of a psychologist, 12-step program, spirituality or *something* to fix their lives and/or relationships with their mother/father and instead there is some big event/action that changes everyone's perception and they live happily ever. This movie seems to be no exception.
I don't understand how Hollywood has not discovered her
She's black. Not a priority. Since she's not fighting for Hollywood acceptance her talent allows her to be the American grand dame of the stage.
Wow, this was filmed like a toothpaste commercial. Can we confirm that Jonathan Demme actually directed this?
I'm a yes even though I'll be obsessed with the thought of Michellr Pfeiffer in this role from now until the movie opens. I'm glad you mentioned the difference in Meryl's voice here because it's the first thing I noticed. We know she has a hell of a range so it's exciting to see that she can do even more (with less?). Of course the trailer tells the WHOLE DAMN MOVIE but I guess we should be used to that.
PS - I don't like to harp on the appearance of actresses, but I did see a picture of Mamie Gummer a few days ago that shocked me because she was much skinnier than she normally looks. I'm not really sure how I feel about either of Meryl's kids as actors yet, they've always just been sort of OK/good enough in everything I've seen them in.
And yes, I'm 26 and I know who Rick Springfield is, but I'm sure a lot of my friends don't. I was weirdly obsessed with pop culture at a very young age.
I am HERE for Mamie and Audra and Rick!
...okay, yeah, and the Meryl/Kevin Kline reunion, too.
And Diablo Cody. ALWAYS.
I have a feeling this is going to be Mamma Mia bad.
*watches trailer*
Yes, I'm right. This looks horrible.
You can remove Meryl from the predicted best actress now. lol
This doesn't look horrible at all, I don't get why people are so bitchy about everything regarding her.
Maybe it's commercial, but there isn't anything wrong with that. Not everything has to be so serious. I am LOVING the hoarse voice, and actually Mamie (who cares if she isn't the *prettier* one). I've never seen Rick Springfield act in anything (I'm 28 and I do know who he is, only because of my 80s phase from when I was younger).
I also feel they are hiding things in the trailer, considering Diablo Cody wrote Young Adult, Jennifer's Body, United States of Tara. I wonder how that original song is by Jenny Lewis, I would die if Meryl gets to sing it as a nominated song at the Oscars.
I m actually excited about this and I m not a huge fan of any of the actors though obviously I appreciate them. The Demne factor is what excites me the most. The trailer is bad and generic. I hope and am pretty confident the movie digs a little deeper and I m sure Meryl wouldn t sign on to something that hurts the image of the professional woman though she has goes very Hollywood on a recurrent basis.
I m a Yes and I think it will be a good non Oscar movie
The Winter Soldier looks adorable dancing with that kid.
I haven't been this excited by Meryl since Miranda Priestley (apologies to Violet Weston).
Streep- playing a rocker with a biting screenplay from Diablo Cody- come on... She is getting the nomination. We already know this and maybe.. Just maybe... Possibly win!?! I think the trailer is definitely sugar coated to be commercial. I love the fact that Streep is able to create a role from scratch this time and not have to fill the shoes of a real person or an iconic role- a couple things that she has been saddled with with the last couple of nominations. To me- I felt a lot of Postcards from the Edge to this performance- and I love it. And just wait until we actually see her rock out to Lady Gaga... That nomination is in the bag!
Definitely a YES for me because it's Meryl and it's Meryl singing which is just doubly fantastic!
However, Nat it was Grace Gummer who was in AHS, not Mamie hehe ;)
And can we just bring up Florence Foster Jenkins for a bit- it is filming at the end of May and will be done in July- Frears usually has a fast turnover with his movies in post production- could the movie be released in the fall? Interesting to think about....
As for a Streep nomination for Suffragette- not going to happen- really just a oversized cameo..
Awful, generic trailer. My anticipation factor for this film just went down greatly. :-/
@murtada great point about Hope Springs, although let's hope people actually go see this movie.
I don't understand how Streep has had such longevity when the film careers of her more talented and interesting contemporaries (Huston, Sarandon, Keaton, Lange, Spacek, Weaver) fizzled out long ago.
She has no charisma, IMO.
I guess the more famous and well-loved you are, the more people just want to hate. Oh well.
I mean it's being released in August at the tail-end of the summer movie-going season and the movie business is, after all, a BUSINESS so the trailer is justifiably commercial and sanded down to attract the crowds who don't watch or think or comment about movies every single day.
Sheesh, lighten up people, trailers almost never reflect the actual final product.
The trailer for "Young Adult" was very misleading. It advertised a much more mainstream type of comedy than the biting cynicism we got. Hopefully, Ricki & the Flash is also much more idiosyncratic and surprising than its trailer is leading us to believe.
Is it bad that I thought this post would be 1/2 the Meryl Streep movie I don't really care about and 1/2 about the most recent episode of the flash?
Thank you Alex.
I mean, I see every film with Meryl (I saw The Giver, for god's sake), but this doesn't excite me much. Diablo Cody usually comes up with more, and so I'm hoping this is the "commercial" telling of this trailer and we have a Paddington-style situation where the movie ends up being wonderful. Audra is also perfect, so that's just a bonus. Hopefully she also sings, cause Audra not singing should be illegal for a movie.
Meryl's character in MRoom took her kids to see her dying sister and it wasn't a musical but it does contain a forgotten mid 90's Streep performance that did not go the Academy way for Meryl.
The trailer is so much schlock. We're going to fix that rocker chick and put her in a pretty blue dress WHERE SHE BELONGS because MOM.
I am assuming that Diablo Cody isn't having that shit and am a Yes.
Poor trailer. NOPE.
I'm a Yes, but that is a terrible trailer. It gives away the ending.
HELL. YES.
Definitely think it won't be as cutesy and generic as it looks, especially since Cody wrote it.
And for the record, I was born in 1993 and know who Rick Springfield is. Jessie's Girl is still well known by young people, which is quite impressive considering what a one-hit wonder he seemed to be.
Not going to watch the trailer (why torture/spoil/disappoint/trick/annoy myself?) but of course I'm a yes, yes, yes. The ingredients are too compelling. The only way I would miss this (as with any Streep vehicle) is horrendous (or bored) reviews from friends and respected critics.
This poster is terrible. It looks like the Sydney White poste.
40 comments in roughly 7 hours, so I guess we know that Meryl Streep attracts attention.
I am a big YES, as a woman over the age of 45, and a big Meryl fan - no contest. Diablo Cody is always worthwhile, and the cast is divine. (Yay -Audra McDonald).
Love that Streep is using a sort of raspy Melissa Ethridge voice, which suggests the kind of vocal damage that commonly occurs.
An Oscar nomination is irrelevant, Streep did this for the sheer fun of it.
Obviously haters have to hate, but I do object to the comment that she is too old for this part.
80's icon Annie Lennox is just 5 years younger than Meryl and she is out touring with a new album. Male rockers like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, etc are allowed to go on forever but somehow women are too old? Please.. don't be so narrow minded.
Saw the trailer and just loved it. Every second.
(doesn't look more commercial than Julia&Julia and even if so, it doesn't bother me)
Can't wait for more, so.... FUCK YES!
American flag tatto on the back!!!!
@LadyEdith
Annie Lennox looks ten years younger than Streep. And Lennox is not pretending to be hip and edgy. She naturally exudes coolness without gimmicks or pretense.
@3rtful - Thanks for making my point about Narrow mindedness & sexism so completely.
@3rtful
Instigator!!!!!
Shoulda called Jenny Lumet.
All about this. And love, love the surprise of Audra McDonald (and another Tony-winning actor, Gabriel Ebert, for Matilda).
I would be very surprised if Cody wrote a movie that shames career women- and I would be very surprised if this film is as toothless as the trailer makes it appear (after all, this is the screenwriter who gave us Young Adult- a film not only with teeth, but a very nasty bite indeed).
...And how do we know this trailer gives away the ending? Because of a montage of sentimental images that correspond to what you have hastily assumed the ending will be?
YES - Sebastian Stan
MAYBE SO - does Sebastian Stan take his shirt off?
NO - everything else. This movie looks terrible.
trailer doesn't look great, but I'm still interested.
and lol at calling meryl uncharismatic. of all the things to call her.