I cannot stand Streep. At all. "Predictably mannered" is the perfect description of her, to me: http://www.salon.com/2010/03/03/osca...mances_streep/
But unlike the author of that Salon piece, I never succumb to her charms. To me, she is frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt has lots of sales. "It's just like ice cream and just as good as ice cream," people say. No, it's not just like ice cream, or as good. "She is so good. What an actress. The best." Every time I see her, I see a predictably mannered performance that in no way strikes me as being anything akin to how a real person would be. Rather, it's Streep being predictably mannered and acting like the great actress Streep should act in playing a person.
For years there was all this talk about marijuana being a "gateway drug" and that was why it was illegal. Turns out that Oxy and it's ilk are definitely gateway drugs to heroin.
Nobody's perfect. I thought Streep did the best she could in that movie. I found parts of it pretty good. I did not walk out of the theater angry I had wasted my time. It is really hard to judge acting performances in musicals as singing ability is such a key part of it.
Kate had her stinkers too. Did you see Love Story with Warren Beatty and Annette Benning back in the mid-90s? Kate had a prominent role in that awful film. I've never seen it but she starred in a film called "The Madwoman of Chaillot" in the 1960s that was supposedly terrible despite having a ton of big stars in it.
And to Reilly, I am guessing you have not seen many of Streep's performances. In Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, August:Osage County, and many of her other films, she is anything but "perfectly mannered." It is easy to think of her as just this wonderful dramatic actress, but she has done action (The River Wild) and comedy (Death Becomes Her, Julie and Julia, It's Complicated) with plenty of success as well.
-Jason "obviously, this is a debate with no answer -- opinions vary about every actor. Heck, I am sure there are people out there who think Rob Schneider can act" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Thanks for the easy out of admitting my opinion was ill-informed, but since I have seen her in all you mention, I'll just have to live with my opinion being wrong, I guess. Unless, of course, it's not. The definition of mannered: "(of a writer, artist, or artistic style) marked by idiosyncratic mannerisms; artificial, stilted, and overelaborate in delivery."
OxyContin is an opioid, same class of drug as heroin. There is a natural link between prescription narcotics (by which I mean specifically opioids) and heroin due to the mechanism of action and dependency. None of that relates to whether marijuana is a gateway to heroin, or, for that matter, any other form of substance abuse. Unfortunately, the argument regarding legalization of weed seems to have devolved to nonsense debates about whether it's a gateway drug, whether "people will just do it anyway", and a bunch of absolutely wrong assertions that it's less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes. FWIW, I think the gateway to drugs are our current culture and absentee parenting, not weed; I think arguing to legalize something because people "are going to do it anyway" makes no sense at all; and I know from good studies that, by volume inhaled, weed is more carcinogenic than tobacco, and may have higher heart disease risks. I also know, from experience, that heroin is a terrible, evil drug, and heroin addicts are some of the saddest, most hopeless people you will ever see. PSH had a bad demon to fight.
My cousin went to high school with PSH. Didn't hang out with him or anything like that. As can be expected for small town upstate New York, the town is taking it hard.
I do think mixed messages are being sent right now. A big drugstore chain is lauded for removing tobacco from its shelves versus the legalization of marijuana.
Sorry if I've gone too PPB.