Films with: Streep, Meryl

Adaptation

Blends fictional characters and situations with the lives of real people: obsessive orchid hunter John Laroche, "New Yorker" journalist Susan Orlean, Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother Donald. As Charlie struggles to adapt a best-selling book, he writes himself into the movie plot.

DVD 1907

Angels in America

Set in 1985. Revolves around two very different men with AIDS, one fictional, one fictionalized. Roy Cohn, personifies all the hypocrisy, delusion and callousness of the official response to the plague. Nothing shakes Roy's lack of empathy: even on his death bed, he's fighting with his gay nurse and taunting the woman he helped put to death, Ethel Rosenberg. The other patient is Prior Walter, who is visited by an angel and deserted by his self-pitying lover, Louis. Louis moves on to a relationship with Joe Pitt, a Mormon lawyer whose closeted homosexuality drives his wife to delusions and brings his mother to New York.

DVD 3105

August: Osage County

The dark, hilarious, and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.

DVD 10329

Bridges of Madison County

World-traveling National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson aren't looking to turn their lives upside down. Each is at a point in life where expectations are behind them. Yet four days after meeting, they won't want to lose the love they've found.

DVD 606

Chrysanthemum and more Kevin Henkes stories.

Compilation of three video adaptations of Henkes' picture books. Chrysanthemum: Chrysanthemum thinks her name is absolutely perfect - until the kids at school make fun of her. It takes a special friend to change her classmates' minds. Owen: Owen isn't happy when his parents won't let him bring Fuzzy, his beloved yellow blanket, to school. Luckily, Owen's mother has the perfect solution. A Weekend with Wendell: Sleepovers are usually fun, but spending a weekend with Wendell is anything but fun and games. Sophie shows Wendell that, sometimes, she has to be boss, too.

DVD 3661

Dancing at Lughnasa

DVD 1259

Dark matter

Elite local patron Joanna Silver welcomes Chinese student Liu Xing to Valley State University. He enters the university with dreams of fame and a Nobel Prize. Cultural differences and school politics threaten his ambitions and result in unimaginable violence.

DVD 6536

Deer hunter

Tracks a group of steelworker pals from a Pennsylvania blast furnace to the coal hunting grounds of the Alleghenies to the lethal cauldron of Vietnam. It is a drama of friendship and courage and of what happens to these qualities under stress.

DVD 391

Defending your life

Daniel Miller was tooling along a Los Angeles boulevard listening to Barbra Streisand sing "Something's Coming" when something came - a bus. One head-on crash later, Daniel wakes up deceased. And his troubles are just beginning ... Meryl Streep joins writer/director/star Brooks ... for a witty peek at the afterlife where you can eat all you want and not gain an ounce. But there's a catch: you're saddled with Defending Your Life. If you can't make a case for having lived a full and fearless one, you must go back to Earth and try again. Daniel's life was far from fearless. But after he meets ... Julia (Streep), he's determined not to go back"--Container.

DVD 7225

Devil wears Prada

Miranda, editor of "Runway" magazine, is a terror to everyone around her. Her first assistant strives to please her, but can't quite pull it off. Enter Andy, a young woman who knows nothing of the fashion industry and has never read the magazine. Nonetheless, Miranda, hires her as second assistant. When Miranda demands that she obtain the next unpublished Harry Potter manuscript, it forces Andy to dig it up in order to please her boss. With the help of one of the magazine's fashion editors, she gets a complete makeover and new security, and as she is whisked away to Paris with Miranda, Andy faces all of the glamor that could be hers and is forced to make the decision of where she wants to be in her life.

DVD 9875

Doubt

1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. Father Flynn is a charismatic priest who is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier. The Sister is the iron-gloved principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. With the winds of political change, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James shares with Sister Aloysius her suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without any proof, besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn. This threatens to tear apart the community with its irrevocable consequence.

DVD 6416

Everybody knows ... Elizabeth Murray

"Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray is an intimate portrait of the groundbreaking artist Elizabeth Murray. This film explores the relationship between Murray's family life and career, and reconsiders her place in contemporary art history. Verité footage, home videos and excerpts from her journals, voiced by Meryl Streep, tell of Murray's internal struggles and incredible ambition. Exclusive interviews with art world luminaries provide the historical backdrop for the New York art scene."--Film website.

DVD 12179

Falling in love

Frank Raftis and Molly Gilmore are two everyday people who meet first by chance, and later by choice. There's just one thing standing between them: Both are already married.

DVD 1943

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live a happy home life underground with their eccentric son Ash. Mr. Fox works as a journalist, but against the advice of Badger, his attorney, he moves his family into a larger and finer home inside a tree on a hill. The treehouse has an excellent view of the nearby farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Ash becomes hostile when his cousin, Kristofferson, joins the family for an extended stay. Mr. Fox decides to raid the farms, but this leads the farmers to stakeout the treehouse. The farmers try to dig the Fox family out, but they dig even faster. Mr. Fox organizes a tunneling project to burrow under all three farms and steal all the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.

DVD 9355

Fierce green fire the battle for a living planet /

Divided into five "acts" (Conservation -- Pollution -- Alternatives -- Going global -- Climate change), the film is an exploration of the environmental movement--grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change.

DVD 9442

Films of Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood talks about his films and the making of them, provides a brief autobiographical introduction of how he got started in his career, and follows with film reminiscences giving insights about the production, the casting process, studios, the industry and experiences with collaborators.

DVD 2261

Films of Sydney Pollack

Through in-depth interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from his films, Sydney Pollack talks about the ideas, influences, motivations, struggles and successes behind his work.

DVD 1089

Florence Foster Jenkins

A New York socialite dreams of becoming a great opera singer. While the voice she hears in her head is beautiful, to everyone else it is hilariously awful. Her husband and biggest fan, St. Clair Bayfield is determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence stages a huge concert at Carnegie Hall, he faces his greatest challenge to make sure her performance is a rousing success.

DVD 12054

French lieutenant's woman

A woman, ostracized by Victorian society and abandoned by her French lieutenant lover, fascinates a man who resolves to unravel the mystery of her clandestine past.

DVD 1900

Heartburn

A bitter romance based on Nora Ephron's autobiographical novel about her relationship with Carl Bernstein.

DVD 9036

Holocaust

Follows the tragedy and triumph of the Weiss family of Berlin and intertwines their fate as European Jews with the story of a German family, the Dorfs, whose members include a high-ranking Nazi officer. Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass" occurs and the Weiss family suffer a series of unspeakable tragedies in the aftermath.

DVD 5548

Homesman

When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs to join her.

DVD 10852

Hours

In 1929, Virginia Woolf is starting to write her novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway, ' under the care of doctors and family. In 1951, Laura Brown is planning for her husband's birthday, but is preoccupied with reading Woolf's novel. In 2001, Clarrisa Vaughn is planning an award party for her friend, an author dying of AIDS. Taking place over one day, all three stories are interconnected with the novel: one is writing it, one is reading it, and one is living it.

DVD 2071

Into the woods

A modern twist on several of the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel, all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.

DVD 10918

Iron lady

A surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world.

DVD 8786

It's complicated

A hilarious look at marriage, divorce, and everything in between. With a thriving Santa Barbara bakery, a new romance heating up, and her divorce finally behind her, Jane Adler has her life all figured out, until she finds herself trapped between the perfect new beau and her philandering ex-husband who's determined to win her back. When opposites attract all over again, will love be sweeter the second time around? It's ... complicated!

DVD 10398

Julie & Julia

Julie Powell is a frustrated insurance worker who wants to be a writer. Trying to find a challenge in her life, she decides to cook her way through Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' in one year, and to blog about it. As Julie begins to find her groove as a cook, and her voice as a writer, the project takes on a life of its own. The project provides the struggling young woman with her life's purpose, to her very pleasant surprise. Julia Child has an amazing love affair with her dashing husband, Paul, all while embracing life and French food. Julie lovingly celebrates the life of one of American food's most influential and beloved figureheads.

DVD 7166

Kramer vs. Kramer

When his wife walks out, Ted Kramer and his six-year-old son have a chance to really get to know each other. Then Ted's wife returns and she wants her son back.

DVD 6127

Little women /

Writer-director Greta Gerwig has crafted a film that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott and unfolds as the author's alter ego, Jo March reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig's take, the beloved story of the March sisters, four young women each determined to live life on her own terms, is both timeless and timely.

DVD 13324

Makers women who make America /

Review the story of how women have helped shape America over the last fifty years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in American history, in pursuit of their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy.

DVD 9463

Mamma mia!

20-year-old Sophie is preparing to marry at her mother's hotel on a Greek island. She has a carefree life, a loving fiancee, and great friends. She is only missing one thing: a father. By reading her mother's diary she discovers that she has three possible fathers. Sophie secretly invites all three men to the wedding in a desperate bid to discover which of them is her father. But not all goes according to plan. Now, old loves are re-kindled, new loves are formed, and Sophie risks everything to discover the true identity of her father.

DVD 6884

Mamma mia!.

Join the celebration, sing and dance, and discover how it all began! Ten years after Mamma Mia! The Movie premiered, you're invited back to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an all-new musical sequel based on the songs of ABBA. Sophie is now pregnant, and like her mother Donna, she'll need to take risks. The film's original cast returns, with new additions including Lily James as a young Donna, Andy Garcia and Oscar winner Cher.

DVD 12855

Manchurian candidate

When his army unit is ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saves his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, Major Ben Marco, is knocked unconscious. Using the incident for political gain, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, but Marco is haunted by dreams of what really happened in Iraq. As Marco investigates, the story begins to unravel. He begins to figure that the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed as part of a plot to get Shaw into the White House. Now the Manchurian Global corporation appears desperate to stop him from finding out.

DVD 9577

Manhattan

Allen portrays Isaac Davis, a successful comedy writer whose wife, having left him for another woman, is now embarking on a book about their failed marriage. Isaac happily consoles himself in the arms of an adoring 17 year-old schoolgirl until he meets someone closer to his own age, who happens to be his best friend's mistress.

DVD 292

Mary Poppins returns

After Mary Poppins departed London, Jane and Michael Banks grew up into loving and responsible adults. When Michael becomes a single father of three children after the death of his wife, Mary Poppins revisits the Cherry Tree Lane home again to try to help Michael and his family cope and move beyond their grief. Time passes quickly for most normal mortals. Mary Poppins has never been normal. Although it's now the 1930s, she looks exactly the same. Her message to Michael, Annabel, John, George and Ellen, the family's housekeeper, about enjoying life and loved ones is also still the same.

DVD 13048

Music of the heart

A single mother with little more than talent and the determination to make a difference teaches violin to students in a tough inner-city neighborhood.

DVD 319

One true thing

DVD 1242

Out of Africa

The true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who runs a coffee plantation in Kenya in 1914.

DVD 447

Plenty

Susan Traherne returns to her home in post-war Britain haunted by her experiences as a resistance fighter in occupied France.

DVD 2153

Post

This historical drama is based on the events surrounding the release of the Pentagon Papers, documents which detailed the history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam. The story centers on Kay Graham, the first female newspaper publisher in the country (specifically of the Washington Post), as well as her tough editor, Ben Bradlee. The two become involved in an unprecedented power struggle between journalists and the government, exposing a cover-up that has spanned four different American presidencies.

DVD 12672

Postcards from the edge

Based on the novel by Carrie Fisher about her life in the Hollywood fast lane. Suzanne Vale is a wise-cracking, vulnerable actress determined to jump start her failing career. Her mother, an aging movie star is the definitive portrait of Hollywood's gutsy glamour queens and, of course, offers her daughter only razor sharp humor and searing honesty.

DVD 1674

Prairie home companion

As if the result of some strange mass-media fluke, the popular radio program "A Prairie Home Companion" somehow managed to survive the television age to entertain its audience every Saturday night from the stage of the historic Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minn. Week after week, hangdog host G.K. serves as unflappable emcee to an amiable hodgepodge of radio-friendly acts that include the likes of popular country duo Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson and singing cowboys the Old Trailhands. This is one show where the under-the-line antics are nearly as entertaining as the program itself. The efforts of down-on-his-luck private dick and backstage doorkeeper Guy Noir discovers the true identity of a mysterious blonde and helps aspiring teen singer Lola to find her true voice before a live audience. There is still plenty of fun and mystery to be had at the old Fitzgerald before the final curtain falls.

DVD 4610

Rachel Carson's Silent spring

Witness the life of passionate biologist and environmentalist, Rachel Carson, and how she exposed the effects of the unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides by the federal government, and sparked a revolution in environmental policy.

DVD 5435

Ricki and the flash

Ricki, a guitar heroine who gives up everything for her dream of rock n' roll stardom, now returns home to make things right with her family.

DVD 11300

Roosevelts an intimate history /

Profiles Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, 14 hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore's birth in 1858 to Eleanor's death in 1962. Over the course of these years, Theodore would become the 26th President of the United States and his beloved niece, Eleanor, would marry his fifth cousin, Franklin, who became the 32nd President of the United States. Together, these three individuals not only redefined the relationship Americans had with their government and with each other, but also redefined the role of the United States within the wider world. The series encompasses the history the Roosevelts helped to shape: the creation of the National Parks, the digging of the Panama Canal, the passage of innovative New Deal programs, the defeat of Hitler, and the postwar struggles for civil rights at home and human rights abroad. It is also an intimate human story about love, betrayal, family loyalty, personal courage, and the conquest of fear.

DVD 10642

Seduction of Joe Tynan

A decent, hardworking senator, whose job keeps him away from his wife and family, carries on an affair with a civil rights activist.

DVD 9226

Silkwood

Karen Silkwood becomes contaminated with plutonium at her job, voices her protest at the indifference and denial of her company, and becomes a threat to the entire nuclear industry and the government agencies that monitor it. Based on a true story.

DVD 1066

Sophie's choice

A drama set in post-World War II Brooklyn revolves around Sophie, a Polish Catholic beauty who survived Auschwitz, her lover, Nathan, and Stingo a would-be writer. As the three grow closer, Stingo discovers the captivating and moving truths that each harbor.

DVD 340

Stolen childhoods

"Stolen Childhood is a feature length documentary on child labor. The story is told in the words of laboring children, their parents, and the people working daily to help them. Children share their experiences of exploitation and their hopes for a better life and future ... Filmed in seven countries: Brazil, India, the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Kenya and Nepal, stolen childhoods examines the cost of child labor to the global community, probes the causes of this complex phenomenon and recommends actions that can be taken to eliminate this gross human rights violation in our lifetime"--Container.

DVD 9286

Suffragette

Inspired by true events, a moving drama exploring the passion and heartbreak of the women who risked everything in their fight for equality in early 20th century Britain. The story centers on Maud, a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.'s growing suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst, Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life.

DVD 11438

Theater of war

An examination of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage and her children", and the political philosophies the play represents. Preparing for The Public Theater's 2006 production of Brecht's anti-war play, Meryl Streep allows a camera crew to document her rehearsal process and interest in the work. Moreover, the life and times of Brecht himself are followed, most notably the playwrites' escape from Nazi Germany, subsequent exile, testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and his eventual return to the country where the play was first staged. Along with backstage scenes and discussion by theatre notables such as Tony Kushner and Streep's costar Kevin Kline, the documentary seeks to depict the history and inspirations underlying the play's themes.

DVD 8493

U.S. and the Holocaust

Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein's three-part, six-hour documentary series examines how the American people and leaders responded to one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of the twentieth century, and how this catastrophe challenged America's identity as a nation of immigrants and the very ideals of democracy. The U.S. and the Holocaust examines America's response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a "nation of immigrants," but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.

DVD 13478

Uncommon women and others

An adaptation for television of the Phoenix Theatre's production of Wendy Wasserstein's play about five friends who hold a reunion seven years after their graduation from Mount Holyoke.

DVD 8475