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There are few actors so singular, so exceptional that they can be identified via first name only: Denzel, Julia, Harrison, Leonardo, Tilda. But the biggest of them all, even they’d argue, is, of course, Meryl.
One of cinema’s most formidable forces and versatile performers, Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award and Globe nominations of any performer — with 21 and 34 respectively — out of a decades-spanning career that includes 64 films and 18 television projects. Along the way, the three-time Oscar winner has dabbled in period dramas ("Out of Africa," "The French Lieutenant’s Woman"), lively musicals (the "Mamma Mia" franchise, "Into the Woods"), fizzy rom-coms ("It’s Complicated," "Hope Springs") and some of the gorgeously devastating films ever ("Sophie’s Choice," "Kramer vs. Kramer").
It’s an illustrious screen career that has not and may never be replicated and one that is still flourishing, with the 76-year-old actress receiving her highest-earning premiere ever (at a cool $77 million domestic box-office opening) with "The Devil Wears Prada 2," which came strutting into theaters stateside on May 1. (As of press time, the 20-years-in-the-making sequel has grossed $234 million against a $100 million production budget.)
Article continues belowWith Streep back on the big screen and again stepping into the designer heels of one of her most indelible characters, here are Meryl’s seven best movies, ranked.
7. 'The Deer Hunter'
It seems wild to say that "The Deer Hunter" might just be Streep’s most underrated work, given that it kicked off the first of many, many Oscar nominations over the decades, but her supporting work here as Linda feels far more assured and substantial than you’d expect from only her second onscreen role ever.
Entangled in a love triangle between two Vietnam War soldiers (Christopher Walken’s Nick and Robert De Niro’s Michael), Meryl elevates what could have easily been a mere “girlfriend role,” with director Michael Cimino reportedly letting the young actress flesh out the part and write her own lines. As a result, Streep packs a lot of power in a relatively short runtime, hauntingly tapping into Linda’s yearning and grief over that you can nearly feel her heart pumping through the screen.
Rent/buy "The Deer Hunter" on Prime Video now
6. 'Silkwood'
In this Mike Nichols-directed bio-drama, Streep plays Karen Silkwood, a real-life Oklahoma chemical technician turned nuclear whistleblower and labor-union activist who investigated alleged wrongdoings and safety oversights at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked.
"Silkwood" marked a transformative, to-the-bones performance from Streep - in her first role playing a real person - who not only nailed that Middle American accent and working-class grit but also embodied all of the vigor, valor and vulnerabilities of the everyday woman who inspired the film.
Watch "Silkwood" free on Hoopla now
5. 'The Bridges of Madison County'
With soulful, sensual work from both Streep and her screen partner Clint Eastwood — as Italian war bride Francesca Johnson and the hunky National Geographic photographer who unexpectedly upends her quiet, quaint life with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm — may be Meryl’s most unabashed romance.
Directed by Eastwood and based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller (with uncredited script work from none other than Steven Spielberg), the 1995 drama chronicles a love affair across just four days, but in the hands of such Hollywood legends, it’s rendered believably intense and impactful, a stirring mix of emotional intelligence and erotic heat.
Rent/buy "The Bridges of Madison County" on Prime Video now
4. 'The Devil Wears Prada'
Nearly as synonymous with fearsome fashionability as her rumored inspiration, Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly is one of Streep’s most delicious dramatic creations, powered with stiletto-sharp wit, ruthless perfectionism and a steady-heeled command over all who are in her icy orbit.
With her swooping silver ‘do, cutting one-liners ("Details of your incompetence do not interest me”) and penchant for flinging her coat at people, Miranda could easily have gone the way of a Disney villain, especially in her less-than-HR-approved treatment of her fashion-novice assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), but Streep skillfully softens any of that cartoonish wickedness with a good deal of vulnerability beneath that glacially chic exterior.
Watch "The Devil Wears Prada" on Disney+ now
3. 'Doubt'
In John Patrick Shanley’s suspenseful 2008 adaptation of his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Streep dons both the convent attire and gnawing concerns of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the strict principal of a Catholic elementary school in the 1960s Bronx who begins to question the parish’s priest Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his close relationship to his altar boys and other male students.
Even with a congregation of some of film’s finest talents (Viola Davis and Amy Adams also star), Streep still manages to stand out from the faithful flock, with her stern authoritarianism and righteous conviction shaken by growing paranoia not only of the priest’s behavior but the very nature of morality.
Watch "Doubt" free on Kanopy now
2. 'Kramer vs. Kramer'
The Kramers in question are Streep’s Joanna and Dustin Hoffman’s Ted, a New York City couple whose crumbling marriage finds their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) among the wreckage as a bitter custody battle overwhelms the fractured family.
As a wife and mother who leaves her husband and child behind to put the pieces of herself back together, Streep occupies the trickier villain role here, raw and realistic in her depiction of Joana’s desperation, despite not having nearly as much screen time as Hoffman. She won her first-ever Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress, in the process.
Rent/buy "Kramer vs. Kramer" on Prime Video now
1. 'Sophie’s Choice'
Adapted by writer-director Alan J. Pakula from William Styron's 1979 novel, "Sophie’s Choice" sees Streep play the eponymous Sophie Zawistowska — a Polish immigrant living with her lover Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) in post-World War II Brooklyn — to devastating effect (not to mention astounding technical skill, with Streep's signature flawless accent work), earning the star her first Best Actress win.
Though nowadays the postwar period drama is referenced most for giving us an apt metaphor for an agonizingly no-win situation, the scene in which Streep’s character must ultimately sentence one of her children to death at the Auschwitz concentration camp lest both be killed is one of the most harrowing and heart-wrenching moments in film history.
Watch "Sophie’s Choice" on Peacock now
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