The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
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Critics Consensus: Meryl Streep's outstanding work helps Ricki and the Flash overcome its inconsistent tone and fairly predictable premise.
Critic Consensus: Meryl Streep's outstanding work helps Ricki and the Flash overcome its inconsistent tone and fairly predictable premise.
All Critics (186) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (118) | Rotten (68)
No chore, and some fun, in an AOR-ish way.
The movie is mature in the way it handles the regrets of absentee parents and the ways in which their children relate to them. There's a little Hollywood artifice here but not so much that the emotions feel inauthentic.
Streep's latest mom role, as Ricki Rendazzo in Ricki and the Flash, has a light, Mamma Mia! vibe, but it still hits all those hot buttons.
Despite Streep's best efforts, Ricki seems more of a contrivance than a flesh-and-blood character.
The film, which Diablo Cody wrote and Jonathan Demme directed, is a work of bulk-size bogusness. Barely a single scene is convincing.
Just when the story beats start to feel unbearably obvious, the film changes keys, becoming less family dramedy than a concert film.
It's not a film to write home about, but its honesty - albeit something hard to watch - is admirable.
This one will be a deep cut [Meryl]Streep fans will relish.
Skip this one and save your money.
With Meryl at the center, Ricki's less than crowd-pleasing moments are fairly easy to overlook.
None of this really hangs together. It is almost horrifying to watch someone as statuesque and strident as Streep cringing and mugging her way through a role this pathetic.
It does possess the typical energy of a Demme film, but everything connecting the musical numbers is forced and superficial.
For Meryl Streep fans only. And then after at least half a bottle of vino. Or a joint. Or both. Yeah, both.
Super Reviewer
Okay drama of aging rocker trying to be there for her family after many years away isn't bad but goes on about ten minutes longer than it should.
A down-and-out, estranged mother comes back into the lives of her upper-middle-class children, ex-husband and his perfect second wife (played by perfect Audra McDonald, naturally). She wins them back through music, and it's really just so much fun. I know Meryl Streep is lauded as the best dramatic actress of her generation, but I've always thought the grand dame a bit stuffy and boring. Perhaps that's why I liked her departure into blue-lidded, Alanis-braided, tatted-up, has-been rockstar. The thing is, Meryl Streep ISN'T a badass; she dabbles in it, as does her character Ricki whom she plays as appropriately lost and hopeful and distant and maternal. She performs the mellow, classic rock selections better than the (possibly altered) mezzo belting of the Witch in "Into the Woods" and the tinny pop of Donna in "Mamma Mia." It's unfortunate that Streep breaks her streak of annual Oscar nominations, seeing as most critics found her performance campy and the movie predictable. Oh well. Mamie Gummer, Streep's doppelganger daughter, is a bit one-note ragey and one-note catatonic, but her Resting Bitch Face is intensely formidable, and I like the casting of real life family members in movies.
Decent, but got to admit, thought it might be a little better than it was. Meryl is great in it, and I loved her look. I would like to watch this one again before reviewing properly.
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