Ricki and the Flash
- Director: Jonathan Demme
- Writer: Diablo Cody
- Producer: Ronald M. Bozman; Rocco Caruso
CGiii Comment
Seriously...if a career depended upon the you-are-only-as-good-as-your-last-film idiom...then, Ms Streep's career would be over.
This is undiluted poppycock.
There's a gay barman and a gay son...both, unnecessary box-tickers.
As a vehicle to kickstart the career of Ms Streep's daughter...you would be hard-pressed to find anything worse.
Whatever possessed you!?!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Three-time Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep goes electric and takes on a whole new gig - a hard-rocking singer/guitarist - for Oscar®-winning director Jonathan Demme and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody in the uplifting comedy Ricki and the Flash. In a film loaded with music and live performance, Streep stars as Ricki, a guitar heroine who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom, but is now returning home to make things right with her family. Streep stars opposite her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, who plays her fictional daughter; Rick Springfield, who takes on the role of a Flash member in love with Ricki; and Kevin Kline, who portrays Ricki's long-suffering ex-husband.
Rock musician Ricki returns home hoping to repair her relationship with her family, including Adam (the gay son she never accepted), after her daughter’s marriage falls apart. At the family’s first reunion, she makes some misinformed comments comparing her assumed identity as Ricki to Adam’s “decision” to be gay. In the end, Ricki is introduced to Adam’s boyfriend and, much to his surprise, sincerely congratulates them on getting together. While Adam’s story is positive overall, earlier in the film, he says identifying as bisexual was “his cover story in college” before coming out as gay. This stereotype of bisexuality being a part of the transition to eventually coming out as gay has a real-life impact on bisexual people, who are less likely than gay or lesbian people to be out due to their identity being treated as a phase rather than a very real part of their life. Transgender advocate and model Carmen Carrera appears in a split-second, non-speaking cameo credited only as “hair stylist,” so GLAAD did not count the character in its final tally.
Hands up everyone who said they were bisexual...in their early days? Oooooh that's alot of hands...
Apart from it being a dire film (possibly, Meryl's worst)...GLAAD ignores the trees and focuses on the wood...!
Cast & Characters
Meryl Streep as Ricki;
Rick Springfield as Greg;
Rick Rosas as Buster;
Joe Vitale as Joe;
Bernie Worrell as Billy;
Ben Platt as Daniel;
Peter C. Demme as Walt;
Jim Roche as Provocative Dancer #1;
Alexa Klienbard as Provocative Dancer #2;
Keala Settle as Sharon;
Joe Toutebon as Whitey;
Big Jim Wheeler as Elvis Guy;
Brooklyn Demme as Salt Well Drinker;
Eamon O'Rourke as Salt Well Dancer;
Aaron Moten as Troy