Ricki and the Flash Review
RYAN: I’m always in the mood for more Meryl and music! This is, like, her third singing movie in recent years, behind Mamma Mia! and Into the Woods. This one is more of a movie with music and they’re all rock cover songs but some of the musical moments are the best highlights and most poignant in the movie.
CAROLINE: I’m with you. She’s the most celebrated living actress and it’s cool at this point in her career that she’s opening up and sharing her voice with us that way. How is she in this?
RYAN: It’s almost a rhetorical question, isn’t it? I’m not sure she’ll get an Oscar nom for this but she’s Meryl. The best part of this movie is the script and the casting and the interactions between characters – and actors. I was into the drama but also, it’s cool seeing Meryl interact with Audra McDonald, Kevin Kline, Rick Springfield and her real life daughter Mamie Gummer. In fact, I wanted much more of the mother-daughter stuff. It’s mostly just in the first third of the film.
CAROLINE: Oh what’s the rest about?
RYAN: Meryl’s relationship with Rick and with her son in the movie.
CAROLINE: I thought there would be more made of the fact Meryl and Mamie are playing mom and daughter.
RYAN: Me too. It’s a bit of a let down. They play off each other very well. There’s so much going on between their eyes. And everyone in this film is really giving their all. The one thing I kept thinking was – you’ve got Audra McDonald – let her sing! But it’s not her character.
CAROLINE: True. So how’s the comedy? This is written by Diablo Cody: Juno, Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult, etc…
RYAN: She’s one of my favorite screenwriters. She writes such dimensional, realistic, complicated people. They’re not even like characters, these are people. And I may be wrong, but I think I caught Diablo as an extra, dancing in one scene.
CAROLINE: But it’s a good screenplay?
RYAN: Absolutely. It’s a family drama that deals with parenting and relationships, divorce, boundaries and guilt. It’s got a lot of emotion packed in under two hours. Oh – I have to mention the house. Kevin Kline and Audra’s home is like a castle. It’s ginormous!
CAROLINE: Cool.
RYAN: The family drama is the kind where they’re having a major meltdown and you laugh because you can totally see how a family interacts that way. It could be any family. And it’s funny but then it’s also sad, you know?
CAROLINE: That sounds like dramedy at its finest.
RYAN: Mamie plays depressed very well but her makeup and hair really help her. And I know Meryl’s a wannabe rockstar in this but the side-braids were a little much.
CAROLINE: Yeah that looks a little weird like she’s trying to hard but maybe that’s just her character?
RYAN: Could be since she’s not a successful rocker, just a bar singer. There are quite a few music numbers and they’re all enjoyable – and they crescendo to the end of the film. Musica really elevates the emotional potential in a scene and this movie proves that. I was teary-eyed at the end?
CAROLINE: Not you!
RYAN: Yes. It works. It’s not perfect. It drags a bit and it’s strange that it’s set up so much to be about Mamie’s character and then just shifts focus a couple times and never really comes back to. But that’s like family too, in a way. Imperfect. Because the music scenes are jammin’ I think this is worth seeing in the theater.
