Film Review

3 reasons to cheer for Streep at the Oscars

Film awards are heating up, and Meryl Streep has been nominated again. Check out the top three performances from the modern queen of cinema.

Ironweed: Streep plays Helen Archer, a down-and-out homeless woman in 1930s America

When award season rolls around for the year's best films, it's hard not to think of Meryl Streep. The celebrated actress's name can often be found on best actress lists, and this year is no different. Her role as Margaret Thatcher in the biopic The Iron Lady (2011) has earned her a Golden Globe for best actress, and an Academy Award nomination for the same category. In total, Streep has 17 nominations from the Academy Awards and 26 from the Golden Globes - both record breaking achievements. Earlier this month Streep cracked another record when she won her eighth Golden Globe. To sum up, the woman is talented.

Now with the Academy Awards airing on Feb. 26, it's time to watch, or re-watch, Streep's best performances. Here are my top three:

3) Ironweed (1987)

Ironweed is an underrated film and it's easy to see why. It tells the story of a homeless alcoholic, Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson), who deserted his family 22 years ago after accidently killing his newborn son. Ironweed is depressing, bleak and dirty. In short, it's not an easy watch. The characters aren't glamorous, the sets are grimy, and aside from its realism, it's a difficult film to "enjoy." But Streep fans shouldn't miss this amazing performance.

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Streep plays Helen Archer, a homeless woman who has been partners with Francis for almost a decade. There's an emptiness inside her, conveyed in both her tone of voice and her vacant expression. A famous musician in her past life, there are moments in the film where Helen tries to relive parts of her glory days, but with heartbreaking and uncomfortable results. The discomfort felt while watching these scenes is a testament to Streep as an actress. The embarrassment conveyed by the character is overwhelming, and it takes effort not to look away.

2) Doubt (2008)

Although Streep received an Oscar nomination for her role as Sister Aloysius Beauvier, this movie has always received mixed reviews. I will never understand why, although I believe it is partly due to a seemingly universal misinterpretation of the film's final scene. Streep as Sister Aloysius Beauvier is both terrifying and humorous, authoritarian and awkward. It's a complex bag of traits and Streep blends them together expertly, unmasking portions of each as the film progresses.  

Doubt: Streep plays strict nun, Sister Aloysius

Based on the 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt revolves around a Catholic school in the Bronx during the mid-1960s. It's a patriarchal world, a theme addressed frequently throughout the film, with Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as the primary symbol of authority and Sister Aloysius beneath as the school's principal. The sister begins to suspect that Flynn is sexually abusing the school's only black student and goes on a mission to find out the truth.

The conflict culminates in one of the final scenes, where Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius verbally spar in the sister's office. Both Hoffman and Streep's performances are perfect here, but the sheer power of Streep's words is incredible as she rages against the priest. No matter how many times I watch it, this scene brings tears to my eyes.

1) Sophie's Choice (1982)

Streep would receive her second - and most recent - Oscar for her role in Sophie's Choice (her first was for Kramer vs. Kramer three years earlier), and her performance is ranked as the third best of all time by Premier Magazine. While Sophie's Choice as a whole has flaws, you don't need anyone to tell you that Streep's performance as Polish Holocaust survivor, Sophie Zawistowski is something special.    

Sophie's Choice: Streep plays a Holocaust survivor with a painful secret

Sophie's Choice is primarily set in New York City shortly after the Second World War. It's 1947 and Stingo (Peter MacNicol), an aspiring writing from the South, has just rented a room in a boarding house in Brooklyn. His upstairs neighbours are Sophie and her Jewish lover Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline), and the trio become best friends. But there is more to their story than that. Nathan's wild mood swings, from glamorous and quirky to paranoid and cruel, simmer as a constant threat throughout the film, and slowly the audience begins to realize that Sophie may have some issues of her own that stretch back to her experiences before and during the war.

While watching the film, it's easy to forget that Streep is an American from New Jersey. Streep learned to speak both Polish and German for this film, and her famous ability to mime accents is obvious. As an exotic love interest, it is easy to fall into stereotypes, but Streep avoids this. Instead, she creates a rich character, layered with mangled English and broken sentences that sound authentic. And while the film has continuous opportunities for overacting, Streep steers clear, delivering a performance that is both heartbreaking and realistic.

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