In case you somehow missed it, Meryl Streep has a new movie coming out this week called “Ricki And The Flash,” written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jonathan Demme. It stars Streep as aging bar band rocker who’s been estranged from her family for years, but returns to her Indiana home to help her daughter deal with the fallout of a divorce. Here’s the official synopsis:
Meryl Streep takes on a whole new gig – a hard-rocking singer/guitarist – for Oscar®-winning director Jonathan Demme and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody in Ricki and the Flash. In an original and electrifying film loaded with live musical performances, Streep stars as Ricki Rendazzo, a guitar heroine who made a world of mistakes as she followed her dreams of rock-and-roll stardom. Returning home, Ricki gets a shot at redemption and a chance to make things right as she faces the music with her family. Streep stars opposite her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer; Rick Springfield, portraying a Flash member in love with Ricki; Kevin Kline as Ricki’s ex-husband; and Audra McDonald as Kline’s new wife.
While they didn’t write the entire score for the movie, indie rock songwriting team Johnathan Rice and Jenny Lewis (who wrote all the songs in Anne Hathaway’s indie rock drama “Song One”) penned the movie’s centerpiece song, “Cold One.” Streep performs the tune in the movie in an intimate, stripped down fashion (which you can see below), but Republic Records have also released an uptempo rocker version of the song and released a video with clips from the movie.
“Ricki And The Flash” the soundtrack album, which features Streep and The Flash singing covers of Tom Petty, U2, Pink, Lady Gaga and more is due in record stores and digital retailers on August 7th. “Ricki And the Flash” the movie comes out in theaters the same day. Watch the video, the acoustic version from the movie, a new clip where The Flash cover Dobie Gray‘s "Drift Away" and check out some new photos below.
