It’s not exactly a surprise to see Meryl Streep sing on film – after all, we’ve seen her warble in the likes of Into The Woods and **Mamma Mia! and that ten-minute rap battle sequence in The Iron Lady **was killer – but Ricki And The Flash allows her to channel her inner Stevie Nicks or Nancy Wilson for a rock ‘n’ roll story of a mother reconnecting with her family. Check out the first trailer.
Jonathan Demme is behind the camera for this one, directing a Diablo Cody script about a rocker who essentially gave up everything for her chance at musical stardom. She’s used to being on tour, but when her long-suffering ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline) calls to say their daughter Julie (Streep’s real-life spawn Mamie Gummer) has been jilted by her husband-to-be, she’s forced to confront the realities of the family she left behind. Naturally, there’s a little re-bonding to be done. And that’s even before she realises that her son Joshua (Sebastian Stan) is secretly a brainwashed, enhanced cyborg assassin who threatens Captain America plotting to elope with his girlfriend.
Steep and co. look like they’re having fun in this one, even if the trailer errs on the side of giving a little too much away. The film also features Audra McDonald, Ben Platt and Rick Springfield, who has some experience with music himself. And given that Streep performs a couple of original songs, does she want to conquer the Grammy Awards and inch closer to EGOT status, having already bagged Oscars and Emmys?
Ricki And The Flash crowd-surfs its way on to our screens on August 7.