Ricki And The Flash (2015)

An aging rocker (Meryl Streep) who heads a cover band that plays small dives in L.A. (her day job is a grocery clerk) is summoned back to Indiana by her ex-husband (Kevin Kline) to deal with her daughter's (Mamie Gummer) breakdown. This may well be Streep's worst film since THE IRON LADY but that film was (partially) redeemed by a superb Streep performance, one of her very best. She's good here but it's not among her best work. The film starts off promisingly and then keels over and dies right in the middle and try as she might, Streep can't bring it back to life. Diablo Cody's screenplay has some nice touches like making Streep's Ricki a Bush voting, anti-Obama Republican but there are no real surprises here as the cliches pop up on a regular basis. Nice performances by Gummer (clearly inheriting her mother's talent) and Audra McDonald in the first half.  Routinely directed by Jonathan Demme. With Rick Springfield, Sebastian Stan, Ben Platt and Charlotte Rae.