Longtime rock star of film Meryl Streep is finally playing a real rock star in the upcoming Ricki and the Flash. In a new clip from the movie, which was directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Diablo Cody, Streep performs “Cold One,” an original song penned specifically for the film by Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice, the collaborators known as Jenny & Johnny.
Streep has never been shy about flexing her pipes in musicals like Mamma Mia! and Into the Woods, but here she brings a soulful quality to the song that is more reminiscent of her less showy performance in 1990’s Postcards from the Edge. She also learned guitar for the role, which is exactly the kind of dedication that tends to impress Academy Award voters. If Streep brought the same depth of emotion to the rest of the movie as she did to this single song, she might very well nab Oscar No. 4.
