Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Streep and Tarantino?

I wasn't planning on posting about this, but there's been so much chatter on the interwebs about director Quentin Tarantino's plans to announce his tenth and final film, supposedly titled The Movie Critic. Multiple sources have revealed that while details of the script are being kept secret, the film will be set in late 70s Los Angeles. Tarantino is apparently known to revere the late film critic Pauline Kael. We don't know whether or not the film will have anything to do with Kael, and if so, if it'll be an actual biopic or only be based on her. But we do know that a female lead will be cast. 

One wouldn't necessarily think of a Quentin Tarantino movie and immediately think of Meryl Streep. But this might not end up being a typical super-violent type of film we usually see from the director. I seem to remember Meryl mentioning that she's not a fan of the violence in Tarantino's films, so it would've been unlikely that she would've said yes to any of his previous movies, even if there had been a reasonable part for her to play and had been offered the role. But we do know from this 2012 article that Tarantino is a fan:

"I'd really love to work with Meryl Streep. I'm a huge, huge Meryl Streep fan, and I actually think we'd get along like a house on fire, even though I don't really know her."

So is it that out of the realm of possibility? While I think it's a long shot, there may be a chance. Tarantino has been quoted in recent years that his final film is likely going to be something much different and/or unexpected compared to his previous productions. How outside-of-the box and cool would it be to see someone like Streep leading a movie form the director of such pop culture hits as Pulp Fiction, the Kill Bill films (which Tarantino wanted to release as a single film) and the more recent Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? And it would be an amazing mini-comeback when we've seen so little of Meryl on the big screen in the last five years. It could mark the start of a new era to her career, which, if the film performed well, could open the door to greenlighting projects that would perhaps otherwise not get the go-ahead (see the years following 2006's The Devil Wears Prada). 

An added interesting element to this story is that Pauline Kael was known to not be a particularly big fan of Meryl's work. An oft-quoted snippet from 1982 reads:

"Something about her puzzles me: after I’ve seen her in a movie, I can’t visualize her from the neck down. . . . Her movie heroines don’t seem to be full characters, and there are no incidental joys to be had from watching her. It could be that in her zeal to be an honest actress she allows nothing to escape her conception of a performance.”

Streep of course had many performances after 1982, and not everything Kael wrote about her was extremely negative. But mostly. The one comment Meryl ever publicly made about the heaps of non-praise was from a 2008 interview:

“I’m incapable of not thinking about what Pauline wrote. And you know what I think? That Pauline was a poor Jewish girl who was at Berkeley with all these rich Pasadena WASPs with long blond hair, and the heartlessness of them got her.”

This has all got the makings of a fascinating character study in a movie with potential for visibility that could skyrocket Meryl back into the cinematic stratosphere. Kael would've turned 60 in 1979, but Meryl would have no problem portraying someone in their early 60s in the 1970s (especially one who smoked for many years). And if we care at all about looking the part, what more could a director possibly ask for? 


The Movie Critic is set to film this fall. 



 

26 comments:

  1. Yes yes yes! That will be awesome. He may also get Kate Winslet since he's also a fan so everything's up in the air. Fingers crossed.

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  2. Was Silkwood the only movie performance of Meryl that Karl praised? I know she fell over herself for Jessica Lange!

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  3. This would be truly incredible. Fingers crossed!!!!

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  4. Extrapolations is not well reviewed by most critics. Thankfully Meryl's role is kind of limited so that's good. Hope Murders will get better reviews.

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  5. It’s true! She’s in talks to play Kael. Yay! I’m over the moon!

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    1. Don't believe everything you read in a tweet. There are no actual sources reporting any involvement with Meryl.

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  6. https://twitter.com/merbearstreep/status/1636799856042979335?s=46&t=RNBPKiauDpTHGWCikA1lKQ

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  7. I had so much hope about this, It would be great for Meryl. But Today I read that Cate Blanchett could be the leading role in the movie

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    1. Would not be a loss if Meryl missed this one for the rumored Almodovar English film also filming this fall and in NYC no less!

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    2. Oh! I didn’t hear anything about that. I think we all need a new project with a great role for Meryl

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  8. Tarantino confirmed three things in an interview in Paris:
    1. The film is titled "The Movie Critic"
    2. It takes place in 1977
    3. It does NOT concern Pauline Kael

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