Review: Ricki and The Flash
Friday, August 7, 2015 at 9:00PM 
The review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here with their permission.
How does one act a hoarse voice? Short of screaming all night into your pillow before a key scene, as I’ve heard some actors do to simulate it, it’s not something that’s all that fakeable. This kept coming to mind watching Meryl Streep in Ricki and The Flash. Ricki Randazzo, her new aging rocker alter ego, sings/screams her lungs out all night with the house band of her local dive bar and works a demeaning low wage job all day. She doesn’t take care of herself. Ricki’s voice is hoarse for the entire movie. After admiring Streep’s dedication to nailing a character you might want to say a silent prayer or offer a symbolic lozenge for her vocal chords if they did in fact receive torturous screaming abuse behind the scenes in order to sound just this way. What did they ever do to deserve this?
Whatever it was, the sacrifice was worth it, having given us Ricki...
It’s hard to think of a similar character in the movies and original characters, particularly of the mature female variety, are rare unicorns and must be cherished when they appear. In other words, buy a ticket!
A bit of history: Ricki Randazzo (formerly “Linda Brummel”) divorced her husband in the 1980s and along the way lost touch with her three children who were raised by their new step mom (Broadway musical legend Audra McDonald, perversely holding down her biggest movie role but not being the one who sings in a singing-heavy movie!). Details of the family history are not important and the movie doesn’t dwell on them except to demonstrate that abandonment issues and resentment abound. Ricki’s gay son (Nick Westrate) won’t speak to her due to her politics and the other son (Sebastian Stan) is vaguely embarrassed by her but smiles his way through her rare cameos in his life. Ricki has long since learned to live with her guilt and discomfort around her kids but an unexpected call from her ex husband (Kevin Kline — Sophie’s Choice reunion coming atcha!) prompts her to spend her last dime on a plane ticket home to help her only daughter (Mamie Gummer, Streep’s actual daughter) through an emotional crisis.
Can Ricki make amends? Will the family welcome her back? Will she get invited to her son’s wedding? Will Ricki ever stop being her own worst enemy in her romance with her band mate (Rick Springfield)? You can probably guess all these answers but it’s hardly a plot movie. It’s all about the pleasure of seeing Streep commit to leather pants, elaborate upbraid ratty hairdos, and excessive accessories like rock and roll is her second skin, her dream, her oxygen, and her armor against the world which never got around to honoring her dream. It’s all about watching “America’s Greatest Living Actress” let loose and rock out a little.
Or a lot as the case may be.
The movie is practically a musical there are so many numbers. In the middle of the picture there’s absolutely too many of them consecutively like the film hasn’t quite decided how to get to its final act and is just partying until inspiration hits. But at least few of them are quite effective, especially the two that count for the most including the rousing if predictable feel good finale. The other one, much earlier, is the film’s quietest and most affecting moment, a late night on-the-verge of sleep conversation with her ex and her daughter when she sings them a song she wrote (“a long time ago,” she says wistfully) called “Cold One” (Jenny Lewis wrote the song for the film). They’re impressed with it, and Streep’s guitar and song skills are impressive. In its own offhand subtle way the scene says something really atypical and generous about failure in America — it doesn’t mean you didn’t have the talent for success.
Ricki and the Flash is full of generous suggestions like this, that imply more than they actually say. One of the smartest is a prickly conversation with the ex when he conjures up an ancient argument and reminds her that he thought their little family was her dream. Her unsentimental reply “I can’t have two dreams?”. Like many of Demme’s movies (Silence of the Lambs being something of a black sheep in his filmography), the movie is ragged, uneven, and sometimes inelegant but also human, idiosyncratic, lively and endearing.
In fact, it often feels less like a polished movie than a jam session between Oscar winners. Ricki and the Flash stars Streep and Kline (4 acting Oscars between them) and it’s directed by Oscar winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) and the Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) cooked the whole story and character beats up. It’s actually a relief to realize that the film isn’t at all burdened by the communal weight of so many trophy shelves. Ricki and the Flash is, as a movie, closer to a garage band single than a high concept or over-produced album. And it’s probably the better for it, even if the result feels a bit unfinished or slight.
Ricki Randazzo has not had an easy or a cushy life but an unfulfilled one as a perpetual never-was rock star. Her star vehicle is thus an unglamorous thin one. Unexpectedly, though, she’s one of Streep’s best characters in years. This may be an unpopular opinion but the last time Streep was Oscar worthy was in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). What’s come inbetween Ricki and that late career peak as Miranda Priestley are a series of ALL CAPS star turns that feel more like elaborate FYC ads than fully authentic people (Doubt, Iron Lady, August: Osage County) and inbetween those strenuous films she’s delivered a few “light” performances, technically less demanding but often pleasurable to watch (It’s Complicated, Julie & Julia, Hope Springs… and now Ricki and the Flash). Guess which group of films Streep is doing better work in these days?
Grade: B
MVP: Streep of Course
Oscar Chances: Though there's already talk that Streep won't get an Oscar campaign for Best Actress this year for a change, you can't necessarily count her out. Actors worship her. At any rate, she seems like a Globe shoo in if the film performs well at all. Plus the Original Song "Cold One" is the kind of contender they should be honoring if they're going to keep that Original Song category. It's an important moment in the film, it's a good song, and it is played in full. And it plays again over the main credits to underline how tied it is to the actual movie. It's not ust an afterthought.
Reader Comments (35)
The new bf and I had a much differing opinion about this movie unfortunately. It felt inauthentic with no semblance of reality in many of the situations/dialogue (like the selfie scene at the grocery store for one) and outright bad for the first hour. Every plot line and reaction shot felt telegraphed minutes before they happened. One of her sons was going to be gay and hate her, but I admit the Asian bf (with really weird facial hair) was a nice surprise I guess? The lighting in the first mother/daughter/ex husband scene was weird, it felt like they were going for realism but is just seemed badly lit. Meryl is Meryl and I understood her choices, but the scene where she's taking in the house porn reminded me of It's Complicated for some reason. I felt it strange to enjoy Rick Springfield's acting/music the most and felt so bad for Mamie Gummer having to wear that rat's nest of hair for so much of the movie.
Saw it today and totally agree. It was great to see Streep play such an unlikeable and struggling character. And she rocked! I know reviews have been mixed but I sort of liked all the rough edges in the script.. Felt more true to life. And I also felt it was her best work since Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia. Would still love to see her get the 20th nomination for it.
Totally agree. I paid for an entire K-12 to see it and they loved it.
I'm looking forward to seeing this on Friday when it opens in Australia.
My two favourite Streep performances:
(1) Julie and Juila
(2) A Cry in the Dark (or as we know it in Oz - Evil Angels)
I really adore Meryl for only doing 3 days of promotion, and then she can just periodically pop onto Ellen or other shows and promote it during August through Labor Day. I hope this gets some traction domestic and abroad. MS actually knows the movie business, unlike some other so called big-name actresses that I won't even mention. I do wish though that she played live sets now with Rick Springfield, even if she just sang, to help people realize that they really did form a band for the music acts. Sony seems to either have faith in this or not, and I like boldness when you realize how much promotion goes out for other summer films.
Showtime (I think) has been playing "August: Osage County" on a loop lately, so I decided to watch it again late last night (first time since opening weekend). The film itself is as pedestrian as can be Mr. Wells, but Meryl was trailblazing all the way through it! I hope people start reappraising her performance here, b/c I think it'll be thought of as one of her late-career best, and of her many Oscar nominations, top tier. Sorry, I don't get Streep in these "light" films at all. "Julie & Julia" was okay as an unconventional biopic-ish film. "It's Complicated" at least works as a Nancy Meyers brand (I'm kinda excited about seeing "The Intern"). But why the hell was "Hope Springs" made? As a favor to the "Prada" director? Nope, not having any of that "lightness," thanks. Academy voters like to see their most nominated actress ever WORK, BABY!, and I can understand why that is. It's why I'm skeptical about "Ricki and the Flash" even making a dent in voters' radars at the end of the year. Where's the sufferin'? The dying? The plate smashin'? The ACCENTS! Just give Streep her 20th for her three-minute speech in "Suffragette" and call it a day, people.
I think she wants to sit this year out,i just have a feeling that they will let get to twenty but that last nomination will come later on for something in the vein of notes on a scandal which sorry Nat Dench should easily have won for,just a hunch.
Julie & Julia is still such a strange one to me... like, no way in hell would any one other than Meryl Streep have been nominated for an Oscar for that. Even she wouldn't have been nominated had it been a similar premise, but she wasn't playing Julia Child. She was solid and enjoyable, sure, but for me that's the most obvious example of her being nominated because she's Meryl, lol. Behind that is probably Music of the Heart.
Anyway, I totally expect her to be nominated for this. She plays guitar and sings.
Actors of Streep's caliber don't scream into pillows to get a hoarse voice. Her years of training and study have resulted in total control of her voice. Accomplished actors are able to feign effects like raspiness through breath control. Actors who hurt themselves for a role are amateurs. I'm always amused to hear that Faye Dunaway almost lost her voice while filming Mommie Dearest, and had to ask Frank Sinatra for advice. Oscar winning actresses with her salary shouldn't be losing their voices. When you see actors screaming on stage, they aren't really screaming. It's just technique. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to play the role night after night. They'd have to be hospitalized.
Streep is often called the Queen of Accents. But there's so much more to her voice work. Compare her back to back masterpieces A Cry in the Dark (nasal and introverted), and Ironweed (husky and desperate). And she pulls it off without seeming over studied.
Streep's body language is another unexplored aspect of her work. But this comment is getting too long!
So excited to see this movie.
Now, it seems to be taken for granted, but Meryl Streep's versatility is a once-in-a-lifetime miracle.
And Mamie Gummer deserves more attention, cause even in guest-acting TV roles, she also rocks.
I'm firmly in the camp of underserved for Doubt deserved AOC,i think the AOC role is misunderstood.
Ian: Yikes. People like you are why Angelina Jolie in Changeling got nominated over Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky.
You are making me want to go see this. I intended to skip after reading the lukewarm reviews elsewhere.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Rachel Getting Married, Demme's other recent wedding film. I couldn't keep myself from comparing the two, despite differences in tone.
Volvagia: "Blow it out your ass!" (one of Meryl's best lines in "August: Osage County")
People can actually love both Angelina and Sallord that year. "Happy-Go-Lucky'" was my favorite film of 2008 with Hawkins giving my top performance of any category male or female. "Changeling" is one of Angelina's most accomplished performances. The clear bottom feeder of that category was Kate Winslet, duh. Perspective, plz.
As for "Ricki and the Flash," I'm seeing it tonight and couldn't be more excited! And personally, I don't think this is going to be one of Streep's "lesser" works. The Academy will bite like they routinely do with her.
I agree that Meryl's work in "August" is very misunderstood too.
I'm glad you liked the movie, Nat.
My favorite Meryl performance still is Death Becomes Her. It's not just awesome, it's simply EVERYTHING. So quotable, so GIFable.
I'd give her a special Oscar for that if I could.
And of course Adaptation. The dial tone scene alone was worth it. It always makes me smile on dark rainy days... That was a great performance AND a great movie. Of course it wasn't nominated for BP....
She still won a lot of critic awards for Doubt and TIL, while absolutely nothing for Bridges of Madison County (or Death Becomes Her). So it seems she won't win anything for Ricki...
Well, whatever.
Had the most fun with this movie. I'm so happy someone else thought it was some of the strongest work Meryl has done in a while. She treats this "lighter" character with the same precision and specificity as one of her FYC roles and she gets to even let loose and have fun with the rough edges of Ricki. While the script was not structurally done well, Diablo Cody really knows how to do great bits of characterization in little moments. This is best illustrated by Audra McDonald, whose character we learn quite a bit about before but then even transcends our own preconceived notions of her. In a small way, she gets just as interesting of an arc as Ricki as a picture perfect housewife trying to be her authentic self while also finding it in herself to understand Ricki. The scene between her and Meryl was dynamite!!!
I love Julie & Julia (the film + the performance) and on a - The Film +The Performance - manner of thinking Julia & Julia is my favorite thing she's made since The Devil Wears Prada. Lions for Lambs and Rendition were also good films with a nice pace and an actual statement.
@Yavor
I'm glad I'm not the only one that liked Rendition and especially Lions for Lambs. Her scenes with Tom Cruise were absolute dynamite.
I even liked her in Dark Matter, but I have absolutely no clue why she was in that (or Evening).
For me Meryl feel often very "free" in movies like It's Complicated or Hope Springs or Ricki and the Flash because at the very least there's no straight comparison to either a potential real person or a stage play actress (especially Tony winning roles like Doubt or A:OC).
Meryl should be able to make a fun movie without everyone jumping on the Oscar nom wagon
I taught AOC to an English college class and the consensus of who should have played Violet and Barbara were Streep and Laura Linney. This was way before the filming was ever announced. Roberts being cast was doubtful. Although she was muck better than I thought she would be
I saw the play twice. Both times with Estelle Parsons. I do think Streep got it right on especially the second viewing of it. I feel that people who thought she over acted did not understand the role. I thought all of the actors did just fine. my only complaint about the movie was the tagged on ending ( not in the play) where the last shot was of Roberts. It should have ended with Violet in the caretakers arms. Much more powerful
OT, but KIND OF related: Did anyone on the team risk Fant4stic? I was almost cautiously optimistic, (Chronicle was at least good as far as a debut feature goes), but then they released the trailer and, especially, that thirty second clip of "Doctor Doom." WOW. The best comparison I heard was "It's like a version of the Husks from Mass Effect but with green glowing bits instead of blue, because this is supposed to be 'Doctor Doom'."
Also have to add that I loved the "Drift Away" scene as well with Streep and Springfield and all that was conveyed.
I haven't seen it but I LOVE her rendition of Wooly Bully. The pop covers are...not as good. Is it cringeworthy in the film? So far it's not doing too well at the box office unfortunately.
Ryan: Gaga and Pink are not really played at all... Just a bit of the intros
@VOlvagia
I saw a double feature of Fantastic Four and Trainwreck,
I actually didn't mind fantastic Four except it's missing a middle act. I'll see anything with Kate Mara in and Toby Kebbell has the best lips since Tom Hardy!
Thought Trainwreck to be average too. Very familiar story beats.
The problem with late-career Streep is that her 'lighter' performances are even more insufferably fussy than her Oscar-bait ones. I found both Julie and Julia and Hope Springs unwatchable for this very reason - her exclusively positive notices for both of these mystify me still.
In the meantime, even though her Violet Weston was almost entirely Streep in grande-stage-dame mode, this actually suited the character and she was consistently exciting to watch. Also that shoe monologue - ie. the single scene where Violet is sober - was a completely naturalistic tour de force that added even more dimension to the performance. I'd argue it's her finest in decades. Maybe tied with the old-Thatcher scenes in Iron Lady - which were some of the most quietly staggering acting I've seen anyone do in ages (shame about the rest of the performance..).
So overall - I can't believe I'm saying this - but I think I prefer Streep in Oscarbait mode...
I loved it! My favorite Streep movie since Julie and Julia, at least (I have no time for Into the Woods, August or The Iron Lady) and definitely one of my favorites of the year so far. (Maybe my favorite?)
I'm mystified by some of the reviews given some of the movies that get a critical pass. This is so enjoyable and has some well-written, fully formed female characters you never see portrayed elsewhere in popculture. It would have been easy to play Ricki's broke conservative, Mamie's depressed cynic or Audra's perfect housewife for laughs, but Demme is too humane a filmmaker for that,
Yeah, a big fan of this one too. I'm mildly puzzled by those that have hated the adds, but that's just perhaps because I'm a Meryl nut. The sound of her working with Demme and Cody and alongside Kline is too appealing to skip.
Glad I didn't too, for found it quite enjoyable.
I know it won't happen but I would have liked to see her again in a Woody Allen film.
It's been 36 years since Manhattan when she was just starting. She dislikes Woody so probably that won't happen but it would have been interesting.
And one thing about Streep I don't understand. How she was not nominated for The Hours one of her later best performances in my opinion.
@ Eytan, Meryl dislikes Woody? Would you care to prove that with some sources?
I Heard her more than once talking of how disappointed she was of him. this is what she had to say about her experience in Manhattan :
"I don't think Woody Allen even remembers me. I went to see Manhattan
and I felt like I wasn't even in it. I was pleased with the film because I
looked pretty in it and I thought it was entertaining. But I only worked on
the film for three days and I didn't get to know Woody. Who gets to know
Woody?
He's very much of a womanizer; very self-involved. On a certain level,
the film offends me because it's about all these people whose sole concern
is discussing their emotional states or their neuroses. It's sad because
Woody has the potential to be America's Chekhov. But instead, he's still
caught up in the jet-set crowd type of life, trivializing his talent."
She was also upset that she was only given the portions of the script
that contained her part (standard operating procedure on a security
concious Woody Allen set). "
Still It would bave been nice to see her cooperate with him again.
Saw Ricki and Loved it! The critics did this film a major disservice. Diablo Cody's script was both acerbic and sincere, Demme's direction never hit a false note (ha), and what can really be said about Streep at this point? This would be her most deserved and best nomination since Prada, easy. I'd have no problems recommending seeing this film to one and all.
Just got to fresh ( only 60 percent :() on a Rotten Tomatoes.....
omg omg omg I made the comment du jour wall... with a Meryl gif to boot. My day is made!