Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Snubs #5: "Let Them All Talk"

I can't believe it's been over five years since I've done a post in this tag! Probably a good sign...Meryl usually makes it into the top five for high-profile projects. But thinking about how Golden Globe nominations are now just a week away, it got me to thinking about how little love she was was shown from awards bodies last year with TWO lead roles in contention. 

This post could realistically be about either of the two films in question. Let Them All Talk was a Steven Soderbergh film for HBO which followed a pretentious Pulitzer Prize-winning author as she makes a crossing of the Atlantic with her two college buddies, played by Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen. The film did well with critics, but of course we don't have box office returns to show because it wasn't really released in theaters. And despite it not perhaps having as large of a platform for getting the most eyeballs on it, I'm fairly shocked it didn't get more traction. 

There was a fair amount of buzz early on about Candice Bergen, as she ended up being a bit of a scene-stealer in the film. That obviously never panned out. Meryl never really got mentioned much for her role. I happen to think it absolutely deserved at least a Golden Globe nomination. last year. It's a subtle, funny, and exquisitely acted part. As usual, Streep does a nice job of making it difficult to remember it's her--which in this case is particularly hard to do, as it might not be difficult to see how she'd conjure up the behavior a pretentious artist. But it's like no other character we've really seen her play, which after forty years isn't easy. And they ad-libbed a lot of their lines!

 

I have to expect that it's possible that Meryl's better chance with Globe voters might have been with Netflix's The Prom. It wasn't a critics darling, but it was more greatly anticipated considering its star-studded cast and with a director, Ryan Murphy, who's had a lot of success in recent years. Plus, it was a musical! That in itself sometimes feels like it'll be a no-brainer...especially for Meryl. I really thought she was going to get in for it. When I saw that Kate Hudson made it for Music, I honestly wondered if the Hollywood Foreign Press was trying to make some kind of statement by leaving Streep out. 

Alas, she got zilch last year. While The Prom may have been expected to garner the greater batch of nods (for crying out loud even James Corden got nominated at the Globes), I maintain that Streep's greater work was as Alice in Let Them All Talk. Either were deserving for recognition in the Musical/Comedy category, and if she had had only one or the other for voters to choose from, I wonder if she would've been able to secure a greater number of votes.   


3 comments:

  1. Ash Grove is so beautiful! To be fair, so many great performances were snubbed that year.

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  2. I hate the Prom. It's so over the top that few other musicals can top that aspect of it. And in a few rare instances, I can't stand Meryl's performance in it. On the other hand, her performance in Let Them All Talk shines through so quietly, so brilliantly, although I feel Sonderberg could have trimmed adlibing to a certain % to make it more 'cinematic'. Still, it's an underrated gem and one of Meryl's more naturally effective performances. By the way, there's a NYTimes article on her role in Don't Look Up....hmmm, I smell Oscar nom in the horizon and what's exciting is that she may be up against her fellow co-star Cate Blanchett albeit in another movie called Nightmare Alley. Fingers crossed.

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  3. We already have at least 3 borderline co-leading roles in supporting category this year! Belfast, Mass, and Passing.

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