The Big Picture · Hall of Fame · Discussion
April 10, 2026/ 140 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda open on the Cannes lineup and a run of release-date news, then build a Hall of Fame for Meryl Streep ahead of The Devil Wears Prada 2. They walk all 65 features film by film and induct ten, with a 'blue' apiece for an underseen one worth seeking out.
65 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Hall of Famethe ten inductees, chosen from 65 features
Her supporting Oscar. She pushed Robert Benton to rewrite the part more sympathetically to the mother, and won that fight. The controlled courtroom testimony, played without trying to win the audience over, is Sean's 'automatic green.'
Her first Best Actress Oscar, five years into her film career. Immaculate Polish and German accent work, acting in other languages in the flashbacks. Neither host loves the film; both call the performance undeniable.
Mike Nichols' whistleblower drama, still not on Blu-ray. The green they pull out of her pure-drama 80s run, which they argue is her best work. A plain American woman opposite Cher and Kurt Russell.
The 'a dingo's got my baby' movie, though almost no one has seen it. A cold, prickly, unlikable turn as a real mother wrongly convicted, inside a sharp film about a media feeding frenzy.
Her third Mike Nichols film, a thinly veiled Carrie Fisher. The comedy-and-singing green, and the closest thing to Streep's real voice; she took it partly to face her fear of singing in public.
Clint Eastwood directs and co-stars; Streep is an Italian war bride in Iowa. The framing device is dire, but the two leads are 'never better,' and the car scene at the end wrecked both hosts.
Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze; Streep as a fictionalized Susan Orlean who starts normal and comes apart by the end. The green for her willingness to get weird in the second half of her career.
Every power move played small and at a whisper, partly modeled on Clint Eastwood. Put her back at the center of the box office and introduced her to a new generation.
In on the strength of what it made. 'The Winner Takes It All' sung up to Pierce Brosnan; she is genuinely likable and, both agree, not the problem with a strange movie.
Julia Child, already an SNL bit before this. Sean's case: she should have won for this instead of The Iron Lady. Joy and over-the-topness with the regret underneath, opposite Stanley Tucci.
The whole filmography, film by filmevery other Streep feature, in order: the yellows they nearly took, the reds they didn't, and the two 'blues' they told you to seek out (Heartburn, Ricki and the Flash)
Her one-scene debut, in a flashback opposite Jane Fonda. The one time you can see her acting, they agree: accent and costume not yet fused.
Yellow. The announcement. An underwritten role she fills with gravitas and sadness, made while she was caring for the dying John Cazale, also in the film.
Red. A blistering, ball-breaking ex-wife on the outskirts of the film. Very good; not in.
Red. A Southern accent opposite Alan Alda's senator. She said she was on 'automatic pilot,' having taken it right after Cazale's death.
Yellow. Two roles and an English accent, but it's Jeremy Irons' movie; the black-cloak-on-the-pier image outlasts the film.
Red. A Robert Benton Hitchcock homage; she's the Tippi Hedren blonde. Slow and talky, the opposite of a real thriller.
Red. With De Niro, commuters having an affair. Inert and much maligned, though Sean was quietly charmed by it.
Red. Fred Schepisi; a postwar Englishwoman coming apart. Worth it for a great McKellen scene and Streep's fearlessness with an unlikable part.
Red. A Best Picture winner both hosts find boring and airless. 'Like eating a rice cake with no water.'
BLUE. Nichols and Nora Ephron, opposite Jack Nicholson. Sexy and confessional, the blueprint for the Nancy Meyers movies Amanda loves. Underrated; seek it out.
Red. Hector Babenco's Depression drama; she and Nicholson as drifting drunks. Excruciatingly bleak, but her 'He's Me Pal' bar song is one of Sean's favorite Streep scenes.
Red. A funny camp turn as a romance novelist, but the movie pits her glamour against Roseanne Barr in a way that insults everyone.
Yellow. Albert Brooks' afterlife comedy; she's luminous and loose as the 'afterlife girl,' even if the part is thin.
Yellow. Zemeckis' effects satire, a sharper She-Devil. A cult favorite; Sean finds it shrill, but it honors a lot of childhoods.
Red. The Isabel Allende adaptation, a stacked cast with no Latin leads. A well-meaning, slow fiasco where everyone is miscast.
Yellow. Curtis Hanson thriller and the first Streep movie both hosts saw. Very physical, shot on the water; a genuine swerve for her.
Red. A mother reckoning with a son's possible crime; a silly, forgettable story, though Molina's one scene entertains.
Red. Reunited with Diane Keaton, a young Leo in the mix. The mushy soft-middle of her career; fine, not much more.
Red. Brian Friel's five-sisters play in Ireland. A small, fine ensemble piece; her part is modest.
Red. She's the mother dying of cancer opposite Renée Zellweger and William Hurt. Affecting in the sick scenes; the film doesn't hold up.
Red. Wes Craven's only non-horror film, a bland Miramax teacher drama. Fun to clock the real violinists at the Carnegie Hall finale.
Red. A tiny voice role as Blue Mecha in a film they call a masterpiece; not a Streep Hall of Fame entry.
Red. Neither host cares for it and neither revisited it.
Red, but the pivot. A hard-bitten senator; her first real villain and the image both reach for when they think of late-period 'mean elder Meryl.'
Red. The nervous Aunt Josephine, made because her kids liked the books.
Red. A therapist whose patient dates her son (Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg). Perfectly fine; a road test for the Big Little Lies styling.
Red. Altman's final film, shadow-directed by PTA. She's good and sings a lot in the ensemble; Lindsay Lohan plays her daughter.
Red. A voice role.
Red. Quite possibly her least-seen film; unnecessary.
Red. A remarkable cast (Redgrave, Danes) across two timelines, and totally forgotten.
Red. She oversees the CIA in a critical-but-unsuccessful political thriller; where Gyllenhaal and Witherspoon met.
Red. Redford directs Cruise and Streep as a Judith Miller stand-in. On paper great; very bad.
Yellow, with a case for green. John Patrick Shanley; some of the best work of Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis. A tough, painful watch.
Red. A great voice turn, but it went in the Clooney Hall of Fame.
Yellow. The under-celebrated Nancy Meyers, divorced from Alec Baldwin, an affair and a dream kitchen. Amanda loves it; a great hang.
Red. Margaret Thatcher, and the win Sean wishes had gone to Julie & Julia instead: 'a ridiculous Harvey Weinstein Oscar.' Phyllida Lloyd directs.
Red. David Frankel; a long-married couple in therapy with Steve Carell. Folksy and forgettable.
Red, but very watchable. Tracy Letts' play, poorly directed by John Wells; a big, showy Violet Weston with real vulnerability underneath.
Red. The Chief Elder in the dystopian adaptation; she's fine.
Red. A Tommy Lee Jones western; a small part, and the one film neither host had seen.
Red. She's the Witch in Rob Marshall's Sondheim, which neither host rates.
BLUE. Jonathan Demme's final feature; Streep as an aging rock star good at the rocking, bad at the family stuff. Sean's blue, barely seen, and he really enjoys it.
Red. A supporting turn as Emmeline Pankhurst.
Red. Oscar-nominated for a rich woman who can't sing and thinks she can. An SNL sketch stretched to a feature.
Red. A very good Katharine Graham in a Spielberg film that overstates the Post's role in the Pentagon Papers.
Red. She has far less to do, with Lily James carrying young Donna in flashback.
Red. Another Rob Marshall; she's the magical Topsy. 'Wicked before Wicked.'
Red. A Soderbergh Panama Papers film they defended in 2019; she plays three roles, one an uncomfortable bit of cultural appropriation.
Red. A small, very funny Aunt March; a supporting turn that helps certify the film's importance.
Red. Another Soderbergh; a novelist on a transatlantic crossing with two old friends. Amanda's near-blue; probably too small to induct.
Red. Ryan Murphy. Very bad; makes both hosts angry.
Red. Adam McKay's last film; she's a glorious-asshole US president. Fun, not a green.
Red. A good voice turn as the queen butterfly in the animated film; not in.
Red. A vanishing voice cameo as Rocky.
The reason for the episode, and unseen at recording: her first true lead since Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Opening: the Cannes 2026 lineup Mother MaryThe Man I LoveFjordFatherlandSheep in the BoxTeenage Sex and Death at Camp MiasmaClub KidHer Private HellThe Last InterviewAnatomy of a FallPaper TigerMegalopolisHorizonEddingtonElementalThe Mandalorian and Grogu
Opening: the week in news The InviteTroop Beverly HillsThe Comeback KingThe Great BeyondCountry StrongAll the President's Men
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV HolocaustThe CrownM*A*S*HSeinfeldThe Facts of LifeLife Goes OnCoach
Podcasts The RewatchablesThe Press BoxThe WatchBlank Check
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