Readers' Ranking Meryl Streep ~ All Next Week!
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 2:25PM 
Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?
Well, yup. A lot of fans picked up our call to rank the sixteen Meryl Streep Oscar nominations thus far with number seventeen just around the corner. It was the best response ever outside of our typical prediction contests. We'll begin to reveal the breakdown after Golden Globe Madness (live blogging tonight... even though I'm sick. be here!) but I thought I'd share a little teaser.
UNDERSEEN
While The Film Experience readership who chooses to participate in polls is a self-selecting sample, according to our very scientific research (we asked you rank everything you'd seen) these are the golden ones that the least of you have laid eyes upon...
01. IRONWEED (1987) missing from 40% of ballots
02 (tie) THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) and MUSIC OF THE HEART (1999) were both missing from 30% of ballots
03. A CRY IN THE DARK (1988) missing from 28% of ballots
04. ONE TRUE THING (1998) missing from 25% of ballots
All the other films showed up on more than 75% of the ballots though The Deer Hunter and Silkwood didn't have nearly the viewership numbers I'd expected given the reputation of the films.
WIDELY ABSORBED
It's perhaps no surprise that one of Streep's all time biggest hits -- and a recent movie -- is the most seen. The Devil Wears Prada was only missing from 2% of the ballots.
TABULATING THE RESULTS...
I weighted the polls to favor those readers who had seen everything. This way underseen work, like, Ironweed as it turns out, wouldn't necessarily lose out to performances that everyone saw but nobody screamed "BEST!" about. The more you'd seen the more your vote was worth, though everyone's votes counted.
NO ONE'S FAVORITE / NO ONE'S LEAST FAVORITE
Though some performances lived up to their reputation as hugely divisive (hi Sister Aloysius Beauvoir in Doubt!) there were three performances that managed no first place finishes and two that managed to avoid last place on any one ballot.
No one's BEST: Ironweed (1987), Music of the Heart (1999) and Julie & Julia (2009)
In other words, once every 10 years Meryl does something that a lot of people like but no one absolutely cherishes above everything else she's ever done. Literally every other performance was someone's favorite #1.
No one's WORST: Sophie's Choice (1982) and Silkwood (1983). Literally every other performance was someone's least favorite among her nominated turns.
STAY TUNED... care to make any predictions?
Meryl Streep, Reader Rankings
Reader Comments (13)
I know this may be a bit wicked, but as I have seen every single Streep film performance, could I just add that my single most dislked performance was in "Evening." That and "House of the Spirits." And interestingly, she co-starred with both Glenn Close and Vanessa Redgrave in both of those stinkers!
Sophie vs. Miranda probably... This was so much fun. I assume it's a lot of work but if you ever do it again with another goddess please count me in!
Anything but Sophie's Choice on #1, Devil Wears Prada on #2 and Silkwood on #3 would come as quite a surprise to me, and Music of the Heart or One True Thing will probably come in last.
(And I do hope Ironweed, which was #3 on my list, comes somewhere near the region it deserves to be in, despite being so underseen).
I bet the top five is among Sophie, adaptation, Prada, silkwood and postcards f rom the edge
Patryk--- not a great movie Evening, but the final scene with meryl and Vanessa is one OF THE best ever
I cannot wait to see this :)
Trivia: "Ironweed" is actually Bob Dylan's favorite Meryl Streep performance! Too bad he's not a Film Experience reader...
This is so exciting...I feel 00's Streep is almost as good as 80's Streep. There should be a class "Streep 101" in any acting school.
It's too bad 40% have not seen Ironweed. One of the very best. I'm going to have to make room for The Iron Lady in my Top 5 best performances by Streep.
How on earth was Kramer vs Kramer bottom of some polls?!!!!! That is CRAZY!! So chuffed she has just WON THE GLOBE!! Oscar No.3 NEXT!
Looking forward to this feature, although I haven't seen enough of her work to vote. In case you haven't seen it, I just remembered one of my favorite Streep tributes was Tracey Ullman's awards intro in 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRwFyiF2JEk So great.
Damn it, if I knew about this before (ie. actually voted) Julie & Julia would've been my first place finisher. I just think it's one of the most joyous (and joy-giving) performances I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.
I didn't vote (because I'm obviously missing a chromosome or some such) (also I haven't seen things like Ironweed and Cry in the Dark) (also don't tell anyone but Meryl generally shits me). But I would have put Silkwood 2nd worst. DJEW-LYA Child worst.
I admit that perhaps I need to revisit Silkwood since every intelligent person I read* only ever gushes over her Robin-Williams-School-of-Nuance-and-Engagement-with-One's-Screen-Partner approach to that role.
I generally don't mind most of her other iconic performances though, e.g. Sophie. That would probably be my no.1 choice. Or at least, parts of that.
* (with the conspicuous exception of Pauline Kael who is naturally above mere humanness and therefore human intelligence)