KRAMER VS. KRAMER

Based on the novel by Avery Corman
Written and directed by Robert Benton

Dustin Hoffman
Meryl Streep
Justin Henry
Jane Alexander

Premiere date: December 17, 1979
PG

Manhattan housewife Joanna Kramer walks out on her workaholic ad man husband Ted, leaving their young son Billy in Ted's less than capable hands. Through trial and error, Ted learns how to take care of Billy, devoting more energy to his family than to his work, and finally losing his high-powered job because of his new priorities. When Joanna returns with her own lucrative job and the intent to take custody of Billy, Ted finds employment that won't interfere with his paternal duties. Even though he proves that he can do it all, Joanna still wins in court. Joanna, however, rethinks her desires when she finally grasps how close father and son have become.

National Board of Review
Best Supporting Actress - Meryl Streep (also for Manhattan and The Seduction of Joe Tynan)

9 Academy Award Nominations, 5 Wins
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor - Dusin Hoffman
Best Supporting Actor - Justin Henry
Best Supporting Actress - Jane Alexander
Best Supporting Actress - Meryl Streep
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Cinematography

Maggie Gyllenhaal in SherryBaby

I'm probably going to make quite a few people angry with this, but I'm throwing caution to the wind because Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance in SherryBaby is one of the best I've ever seen.

As someone who has been personally affected by drug addiction and alcoholism, SherryBaby, about a parolee looking to clean up her life to take care of her young daughter, really hit home for me. It features a selfless, courageous performance from Gyllenhaal that easily should have earned her an Academy Award nomination, and probably a win.

2006 was a crowded year for actresses, but there is one nominee I feel should have been out to make room for Maggie. The fact that Meryl Streep got a Best Actress nod for a supporting role in a mediocre chick flick over Gyllenhaal's astounding work here is beyond criminal.

This Meryl-mania has got to stop, simply for the reason that other actresses who turn in wonderful performances are being overlooked year after year in favor of lighter-than-air roles that Streep could play in her sleep. A bitch fashionista is not a character that Meryl had to work hard to play. I'm sure she meets them everyday in Hollywood.

Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, turned in a mesmerizing performance that deserved far more recognition than it got. Her desperate, terrifyingly accurate turn as Sherry is one that will be seared into my mind for a long time.

So Funny, So True

I found this hilarious article from The Onion posted by Nat Rogers over at The Film Experience. Read it if you have a moment. With all due respect to the great Meryl Streep, it's hysterically accurate.

Meryl As Julia

I saw Julie & Julia about a week ago and have to say I didn't enjoy it much, but Meryl Streep's performance is definitely going to be a major contender this year. Surprise, surprise, right?

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Streep plays Julia Child with an immense, irrepressible joy. The film follows Julia in 1950s France, enrolling in culinary school, mastering the art of French cooking, and striving to publish the first French cookbook written for Americans. Then there are these irritating interruptions in which some self-obsessed, whiny cubicle worker in New York, played by Amy Adams, tries to cook her way through Child's revolutionary cookbook in one year. This part of the movie doesn't work. At all. Thank goodness for Streep's lovable Julia Child. Every time she graced the screen the audience I watched it with was overcome with the giggles.

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This is without a doubt a wonderful performance from Meryl. She and Stanley Tucci, as Julia's husband Paul, are the reasons to see this film. Their chemistry as the married couple they portray and as actors is perfect. Ms. Streep has another comedy Globe coming her way this year, and probably a 16th Oscar nomination as well.

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I know plenty of people are aching to see her with a third statue to add to her mantle. She hasn't won since 1982, after all, and you can't deny that she's one of the most brilliant actresses film has ever seen. But I can't help but hope she doesn't win this one. She's phenomenal here, to be sure, but I want her to win her third for a powerhouse dramatic role instead. Here's hoping she signs up for one soon.

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Also keep an eye (and ear) out for Meryl in It's Complicated, a Nancy Meyers comedy due in December, and the Wes Anderson stop motion animation feature The Fantastic Mr. Fox, to which Streep lends some voice talent.

JULIE & JULIA

Based on the books My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme and Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
Written and directed by Nora Ephron

Meryl Streep
Amy Adams
Stanley Tucci

Premiere date: August 7, 2009
PG-13 for brief strong language and some sensuality.

Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends...until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

AWARDS INFO COMING WHEN AVAILABLE