My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Probably the greatest living actress working right now...three Oscars, nineteen nominations, her career is unprecedented and she is an actress of extreme versatility and a limitless acting range who has aided in making great films masterpieces and not so good movies seem a lot better than they are. Be forewarned that the order of my favorite performances might not be what most would expect and films that you think should be on this list might not appear at all but, as always, this is my opinion and my opinion only. The following are my favorite Meryl Streep performances:

25.

Dr. Lisa Metzger, Prime

http://s.mcstatic.com/thumb/7788592/..._david.jpg?v=4

Streep provides a master class in underplay and comic timing in one of her least seen performances. Streep plays a psychiatrist who comes to the realization that one of her patients (Uma Thruman) is dating her much younger son (Bryan Greenberg). Streep doesn't get a lot of opportunity to do comedy, but when she does, she always comes through taking the character as seriously as her dramatic roles but always finding the humor in the character and she does that in spades here.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

I always felt like I was the only person on the planet who had ever seen Prime...they never talk about it on these boards or anywhere else.

24.

Aunt Josephine, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

https://filmreviews12.files.wordpres...nysnicket2.jpg

Streep's deliciously over-the-top performance here is easily the best thing about this movie.

Despite having some big names it's one of those movies that gets missed.

Completely forgot about her in Lemony Snicket...but when I try to think of that movie the only thing I remember is Jude Law's voice. :shrug:

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

The only thing I remember about Lemony Snicket is Meryl Streep.

23.

Mary Fisher, She-Devil

http://s.mcstatic.com/thumb/6940232/...fisher.jpg?v=2

Streep's flamboyant comic turn is the best thing about this problematic 1989 comedy about a romance novelist (Streep) who drifts into an affair with an accountant (Ed Begley Jr.), much to the chagrin of the accountant's frumpy wife (Roseanne Barr). This movie features an uneven screenplay and some questionable casting, but Streep's work, as always, is on the money.

22.

Sister Aloysius Beavier, Doubt

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/doubt02.jpg

Streep was nominated for an Oscar as the head of a convent school trying to get to the truth regarding a student accusing a priest (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) of molestation. What I love about the character and this performance is that usually nuns in cinema are portrayed as somewhat non-human and above human frailty, but Streep makes this character beautifully human and always believable.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

was she ever sexy in a film?

21.

Rachel Samstat, Heartburn

http://www.cornel1801.com/video/Hear...el-Samstat.jpg

Streep brings this deliciously flawed character to fruition in one of 1987's most underrated films...Rachel is a writer who has put her career on the back burner in favor of a relationship with a man (Jack Nicholson) who may not have been worth the sacrifice. Streep and Nicholson's characters are based on writers Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein.

20.

Jane Adler, It's Complicated

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16d18d81.png

Streep really appears to be enjoying herself in this light romantic comedy about a divorcee with grown children who begins dating the architect redecorating her house (Steve Martin) and then reconnects with her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) at her son's graduation and starts seeing him as well. Some critics and viewers thought these actors were a little old for this kind of comedy but I think that's exactly what makes it special and Streep's commitment to the humor in the situations presented is also a huge plus.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

I too forgot about her in Unfortunate Events but i barely remember it having only seen it in the cinema when it was just released. I know i watched She-Devil when i was very young but again don't remember much, a few scenes with Roseanne stick out in my head though. Not a fan of Heartburn.

19.

Eleanor Shaw, The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

http://derekwinnert.com/wp-content/u...013/09/150.jpg

She wasn't quite as bone-chilling as Angela Lansbury was in the 1962 original, but she does an admirable job of recreating this character for the 2004 remake and, once again, is the best thing about the movie.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Interesting, i haven't seen the remake because i thought there was no reason i should but i might do so now actually. I love the original and Lansburys performance.

Mary Fisher. Garcia! Ha! Fun pick. I still haven't seen Doubt :eek: but at some point want to watch it. It's Complicated is one of my favorite romantic comedies. Interested to see if the witch from Into the Woods makes the list- didn't care for the movie overall, but thought it was worth watching just to see Meryl's performance.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Yes, but I won't reveal it here, as it is my #1 Meryl Streep performance.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

I think Meryl is sexy in Adaptation.

http://38.media.tumblr.com/69fc7fd98...0k2qo2_500.gif

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Trust and believe that Into the Woods will be on this list..a little too early for it.

18.

Roberta Guaspari, Music of the Heart

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...iews/Meryl.png

Streep's professionalism helps keep the schmaltz level tolerable in this fact-based story of a music teacher who makes it her mission to teach inner city (black) children to play the violin.

Confession, I only watched Music of the Heart when it came out because N'SYNC had a song on the soundtrack. :laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blz-npEbOHA

17.

Kate Gulden, One True Thing

http://lalive.s3.amazonaws.com/img/one-true-thing.jpg

Streep is heartbreaking in this sentimental drama about a woman dealing with cancer, a philandering husband (William Hurt) and a long distance daughter (Renee Zellweger).

16.

Lindy, A Cry in the Dark

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Qw9BijG33...00/meryl88.jpg

This is another one of those movie characters whose every move made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. LIndy's child was attacked by a dingo but she ends up a suspect in the death of the child...Streep has rarely been this chilling onscreen...this character is so creepy because you're never sure when she's lying and you're never sure of her guilt or innocence.

15.

Suzanne Vale, Postcards from the Edge

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...psjwqyrohg.jpg

Streep sparkles in this film version of Carrie Fisher's book based on her own life. One of Streep's nineteen Oscar nominations was for this performance as an actress who has been recently released from rehab, on the condition that she movie in with her mother (Shirley MacLaine). Streep heads a solid all-star cast under the masterful direction of Mike Nichols.

14.

Lee, Marvin's Room

http://pmd205465tn.download.theplatf...3847619770.jpg

Streep found an acting partner on her level here where she and Diane Keaton are sisters who attempt to heal their relationship when it is revealed that one of them has leukemia. Streep and Keaton work really together, and, ironically, Keaton is the one who received the Oscar nomination.

13.

Hannah Pitt, Ethel Rosenberg, The Angel Australia, Angels in America

https://goofybeast.files.wordpress.c...bbi-streep.jpg

In addition to this FABULOUS cameo as a male rabbi, Streep won an Emmy for playing three other characters in this historical HBO movie.

12.

Linda, The Deer Hunter

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...-ceremony2.png

Streep herself has referred to this role as simply "the woman between the two guys" but she brings so much more to her first Oscar-nominated performance.

11.

Helen Archer, Ironweed

http://i2.listal.com/image/1591379/500full.jpg

Streep really seems to be enjoying herself in a flashy, Oscar-nominated performance that effortlessly combines internalized acting techniques with controlled scenery-chewing.

10.

The Witch, Into the Woods

http://static2.hypable.com/wp-conten...-woods-666.jpg

Streep received a Supporting Actress nomination for this flawless recreation of the leading character in a Broadway musical. Streep plays a witch who offers to help a childless baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) have a child with her assistance and the assistance of other classic fairy tale characters. Streep is brilliant here, staying true to the role as originated on Broadway without ever attempting to imitate the role's originator, Bernadette Peters...Streep puts her own mark on the role, especially in her musicianship...she had me in tears with her rendition of "Stay with Me" and stops the show with "Last Midnight"...just my opinion, but this is another Oscar Streep should have won.

9.

Joanna Kramer, Kramer VS Kramer

http://content8.flixster.com/photo/1...639486_gal.jpg

This is not the first appearance of this performance on one of my lists but it still belongs here...Streep won her first Oscar playing a housewife who leaves a suffocating marriage but returns a year later for her son. I love this character/performance because the story manipulates us into feeling sympathy for her initially and then turning her into a genuine villain but we never stop liking her and that is attributed to Streep's talent ...her interpretation of the character keeps her likable.

8.

Sarah/Anna, The French Lieutenant's Woman

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...23e82e0583.jpg

A complex dual role in a period setting...this one had Streep written all over it.

7.

Miranda Priestley, The Devil Wears Prada

http://www.flare.com/wp-content/uplo...4a06ea84fe.jpg

Some may question the high placing of this performance on the list, but I don't care, I think this performance is a master class in film acting...Streep plays a hard-as-nails magazine editor who intimidates her new assistant (Anne Hathaway) as well as striking fear in every one of her employees without ever speaking above a stage whisper. And just when you start to hate the character with a passion, the story allows her a window for sympathy and Streep nails it, creating sympathy for a character who doesn't deserve it. I also love the way Meryl looked in this movie.

6.

Julia Child, Julie and Julia

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/sti...ie_julia26.jpg

Meryl's larger-than-life interpretation of the famous French chef absolutely MADE this movie, I don't care what anyone says...Amy Adams worked hard as Julie, but for me, the movie only came to life when Meryl was onscreen...another great Oscar-nominated performance.

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Defending Your Life better be making an appearance.

https://33.media.tumblr.com/0268e519...arzmo2_250.gif

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Nope

5.

Sophie, Sophie's Choice

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/phot...47-500-334.jpg

Streep won her first Lead Actress Oscar (though I'm one of the few people on the planet who thinks the award should have gone to Jessica Lange) in this rich complex role as a Polish immigrant caught up in the Holocaust who has to make a VERY difficult decision. This role is the very definition of Oscar-bait but Streep makes it work.

4.

Susan Orlean, Adaptation

http://cdni.condenast.co.uk/642x390/..._b_642x390.jpg

Just about everything works in this movie and Streep's performance is one of those things.

3.

Clarissa Vaughan, The Hours

http://cdn2-www.afterellen.com/asset...ges/hours1.jpg

Streep's performance as a bisexual writer at the beginning of the millenium is one of the best things about this movie.

2.

Karen Silkwood, Silkwood

http://lalive.s3.amazonaws.com/img/M...n-Silkwood.jpg

Streep was again nominated for an Oscar for another portrait of a real-life figure...Karen Silkwood was a plutonium worker who finds out things are not kosher at her plant and risks her job and life when she refuses to stay silent. I love this performance because it's one of the few times Streep has played a "regular Joe"... an ordinary person living an ordinary life but risking everything, including her boyfriend (Kurt Russell), when she learns what's going on. Karen is the kind of person you could sit down at a bar and have a beer with that's why I love her.


There will be no honorable mentions because I've mentioned all the films I wanted to mention and I know there are a lot of memorable Streep performances that I left off this list and for those who feel wronged, feel free to make your own list....and I'm pretty sure my number one is going to raise some eyebrows and some criticism, but it's my favorite Streep performance and I'm sticking to it...and now, my # 1 favorite performance by the incredible Meryl Streep:

1.

Madeline Ashton, Death Becomes Her

http://www.imagozone.com/var/albums/...g?m=1292982199

Before you start hurling the tomatoes, make sure you have seen this film because this is one of the most underrated black comedies ever made, with a flawless turn from Streep which, ironically, did NOT earn her an Oscar nomination...Streep plays an extremely vain actress who gets her hands on a youth potion from a spooky sorceress (Isabella Rosellini) and then learns that her childhood friend and now sworn enemy (Goldie Hawn) is taking the same potion. Streep is beautiful, entertaining, and as I mentioned earlier in this thread, very sexy. The film did win the Oscar for Outstanding Visual Effects and that one the Academy got right.





Hope you enjoyed the list.

Pleasantly surprised by your #1 pick. Loved that movie since I was a kid. Mad, Hel and Ernest still crack me up.

http://media.giphy.com/media/kLiMBLofCkC8o/giphy.gif

Great performances on your list that I have seen and also need to add to my watchlist. Especially enjoyed this list because Meryl is one of my favorites. Great job! :up:

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

I ve always found Meryl s nose annoying to look at, she s otherwise a beauty but then comes her nose......wonder why she couldn t fix it...at least a bit

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

Hot take coming in. I've found her overrated. She straddles the over acting line to me. She just cherry picks award bait roles/movies. I've never once said man I have to see that Meryl Strep movie/role. I find her smug and that stuff comes off on screen to me. I've admittedly haven't seen a ton of her work because the stuff I have seen is uninteresting. I think Cate Blanchett is way better. What do I know though? Next to nothing. Although I am planning on watching Kramar vs Kramar when I get some time here soon, never seen it. I am hoping it is Cosmo vs Cosmo ;-)

u should definitely watch kramer vs kramer

Re: My Favorite Meryl Streep Performances
 

loved that scene lol

Interesting that you say that. I concede that she is a very talented actress. Yet I can't readily recall a movie she was in that I liked. The last that comes to mind is Manhattan (1979). She's one of the Hollywood people that believe their opinions ought to be heard and agreed with simply because they're famous. But she's so associated with the wacky PC/SJ crowd, that I almost can't enjoy her in a film.

Listen she is obviously talented...in my dumb opinion I don't get the appeal. She's never to me had a defining role that even people who don't watch movies know. She is just a well known name because the Oscars can't get off her jock. I can't recall her being in a movie ever where I just said I can't miss that, or you have to see this.

As far as her politics. That's 3/4s of Hollywood now. Between the streaming and preaching movies I haven't been excited for a movie since Tenet. There is a reason people are making a killing on YouTube reacting to older movies. :shrug:

I haven't seen all her movies, but I liked her in Sophie's Choice.

Ah, here it is (the thread, I mean).
Ok, well, all I can do is wholeheartedly, but respectfully, disagree.
I think she's the opposite of the over-actor, she is the one who can entirely inhabit a role to the degree that even though she's a superstar I can forget it's her. Her portrayal of Julia Child, a person I grew up watching every day because of my mother, was startling to me. It wasn't mimicry it was like she was Julia Child, back from the grave to be in this movie.
And that's just one of maybe 30 times I've seen her and thought, "Well, I wonder who the second-best actor in the world is?"
And I am the opposite of you in that I will watch any movie with her in it based on the strength of her being in it alone. I don't know about smug but I know she was treated very badly at the beginning of her career, called "ugly" and told she could never make it with a face like hers while male actors she knew and worked with who were not handsome were becoming the superstars of their time. She fought through all of that because she was simply the best there is and she rode that through all the prejudices against her to become the grand dame of acting. Because she is simply better than everyone else.
I agree with you on one thing, I think of Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton as being the obvious heirs to her throne but they can't have it while she's still working because if she even clears her throat it reminds everyone that she's still the best.

I wanna be super-clear that when I ask this question this isn't to try to devalue your opinion, what I'm trying to do is determine context.
The question is, how old are you?
And the reason is that your perspective sounds like someone who came to know her after she was already acting royalty and so it's left you a bit on the outside trying to understand why she got there and why "the Oscars can't get off her jock". And I would totally understand that if you were under, say, 40 years old, honestly.
I actually watched her ascend and so I got to see her go from nobody, to upstart, never being allowed to be an ingenue because she wasn't pretty enough, and engaging with the most challenging roles available for a woman at the time, again and again, and again, doing nothing that would make her popular, just always choosing the toughest work (Sophie's Choice, The Deer Hunter, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Kramer vs. Kramer, Silkwood, Ironweed), until she had fully established herself as the best there was. Then she got a little more playful.
But she still has the chops. I honestly thought not only Julia Child but also Miranda Priestly were just amazing performances. She never stops impressing me.

Jerry Seinfeld called Meryl Streep "pretentious" on Seinfeld. ;)

Which was a joke, obviously. (He's a comedian.)

Yes, it was part of the plot... because Elaine revealed she faked orgasms with Jerry... so the conversation turns to "acting"... Elaine suggests they go see a Meryl Streep movie because Streep is so authentic... and Jerry (still miffed over Elaine's "acting" out orgasms) goes off on Meryl Streep being a pretentious, overrated phony.

Jerry was projecting his anger over Elaine's "acting" onto Meryl Streep because it was Elaine raving about what a great actress Streep is.

Join us next week for another psychological analysis of Seinfeld episodes! ;)

I am 34. We can respectful disagree. Obviously I am in the minority. I have never said one time in my life oooo that's a Meryl Streep movie, I gotta see that. I think she cherry picks movies/roles that will showcase her because she knows the Oscars will do anything to get a whiff of her farts. Instead of picking entertaining movies. I just personally don't get it. She may have started on the bottom but she is part of the Hollywood elite that is ruining Hollywood now. It's all about moral superiority rather than entertainment. God bless her but she ain't for me.

I am here for it lol

I look forward to the summer full of analysis on George.

Well it was suppose to be the summer of George.

Just gonna pretend that number 1 is Bridges of Madison County and go on about my business

Speaking of Seinfeld, did anyone else feel that Pam the bookstore manager looked like a young Meryl Streep.

I just don't get all the love for The Bridges of Madison County...I was so bored by that movie but maybe I need to re-watch it.