More ammunition for mounting a forceful campaign, Meryl Streep reminds us in no uncertain terms that anyone who dared underestimate Margaret Thatcher would “rue the day.”
Even more intimidating, a set of 5 absolutely brilliant posters has debuted. They’ve been vandalized with a lacerating attitude intended to undercut any misgivings movie audiences (and Oscar voters) may harbor about the films political stance — radically asking us to embrace the hate. Devised to push our buttons from either side of the floor, these posters are a gut punch across the aisle. Whether you vilify Thatcher or venerate her, I’m in awe of these cheeky designs and the fiendishly sly strategy behind them.
The fact that it is necessary to demonize your main character in order to even have a shot at winning an oscar for the greatest actress of all time is really, truly sad. The guy from Portland is, unsurprisingly, a jerk about it.
@Jimmy – DITTO.
What an incredible movie. Meryl Streep channels Margaret Thatcher. While I do love Viola Davis’s performance in The Help, Ms. Streep’s performance cannot be touched. If she loses, she will have been absolutely, positively, unequivocally robbed.
i have seen Iron lady, the help and my week with Marilyn… Iron lade is not necessarily the best film I have seen, but if one is picking the best female lead performance, there are no other performance is comparable to Meryl in Iron Lady. not a single second in the movie she didn’t show her acting talent! The tone of her voice changes during the movie depending on the age of Margaret Thatcher she is playing. She is using not just her voice, but also her body to act the old demented MT. Her limbs shake as the old MT sitting down in bed is so realistic like you are watching a old frail women in front of you. Her perfect impersonation makes one forget you are watching Meryl Streep but she has become MT. The very last scene when MT was finally letting her late husband out of her hallucination was touching, giving the already meaty performance a final jolt to be Meryl Streep finest performance ever.
I don’t see why the best actress has to come from Best picture. besides, “the Help” is not a movie carried by Viola Davis. Her performance was good in the movie but she is getting all the hyde because of the box office and the subject of the movie. is the box office success solely because of Viola Davis’ performance? definitely No! is she a great actress, yes. but she was better in “the Doubt”…
“For Best Results, Serve Hot. Avoid Milk”
I am still laughing two days later. I really love this. And I haven’t loved a movie promo type poster like this in years
ok finally saw iron lady…have now seen the help, and week with marilyn…and have to say meryl really hits a home run and outshines viola and michelle. I was in awe of her performance and consider it one of the best ever. I’m not sure the movie is all that great, but neither were the others. Good luck in Feb Meryl
Your justifying your position Rob. I knew someone would drag Lloyd into this, for her Mama Mia fiasco. I think the critics are still angry at Llyod over the Mama Mia fiasco and they wish to continue the persecution. The Iron Lady ain’t no Mama Mia. Streep’s transformation in this film is astounding. I rank it as one of Streep’s top 5 performances and totally Oscar worthy this year or any year. Streep was at her brilliant best.
It seems like it’s become the norm just to expect Meryl to be nominated every year for some high profile role, that Academy members feel comfortable just nominating her and are more passionate about voting for somebody else. That’s not to say that she isn’t always great and deserving to win in most cases, it just seems to me that if she were to actually get more momentum for a win, she should do something that perhaps is A) more hard-hitting, like some serious Sophie’s Choice material here and not say Mamma Mia B)portraying an original character and not someone in a biopic or other famously adapted material or C) do something that’s totally uncommon of her, like playing a villain (and not a loveable one like She Devil or Death Becomes Her but someone truly dark and messed up). When you’re someone as wonderful and lauded as Meryl Streep as an actor, I think you’d have to set the bar higher than anyone else if you really wanted people to take notice of you in a different way, unless for once the competition was so extremely bad she got another win which she most certainly will again someday . Either way, she likely could care less about any of it and is doing just fine without anyone’s help.
I saw The Iron Lady today. Streep’s performance totally blew me away. This has got to be in her top 5 performances of all time. It’s huge. If she doesn’t win Oscar for this I don’t think she’ll ever win again. What the hell does this lady have to do to win an Oscar? What masterwork! I went in with low expectations after reading not-so-great reviews of the film. And I have to say the movie was good, solid, better than expected. Not sure why there is so much hate from the critics. Anyway, it certainly was a show piece for Streep, who definitely carries the film. The audience applauded at the end of the movie.
BTW, not about this scene… but did I miss something or how am I feeling that the line “Gentlemen, shall we join the ladies?” was not even in the movie?
Just came back from seeing the movie and I have to say that Streep is excellent. To echo the cliche out there, it’s far and away the best performance of the year! Yes, the film is a bit trite at times, and I wish that Hollywood would find a new way of telling a life story without the tired technique of having the aged person reflect back on it.
My familiarity with the subject matter is limited, and having not felt the direct impact of Thatcherism, I can’t say I have a strong opinion about her either way. I don’t feel that much different after seeing the Iron Lady either.
Whatever the problems with the movie were, however, I got over them quickly. Streep carried the show – and having been duped into seeing plenty of very dull films – where an actor is later lauded with awards because their acting supposedly transcends the material – this one, I can say, is truly worth seeing for Meryl, alone.
Social Democratism works (the Nordic model). Beats Capitalism anytime.
When will socialists understand that socialism doesn’t work?
I want these posters. All of them.
*lol* You really have to give Weinstein credits for this unpredictable turn in campaign. It’s Oscar worthy.
Those posters are brilliant. Streep should definitely win the Oscar. It’s about time.
I thought The Iron Lady was much better than expected anyway.
Saw Iron Lady today. You might fault the movie but wow, Meryl Steep is phenomenal. Trans formative. I am in awe. I have loved her many Oscar worthy performances but if this is not number three for her, then the Academy has lost all of my respect. She is truly amazing. And Brilliant!
I saw these posters earlier in the week. I thought it was a joke, but no, they are real. I think they’re great! Rather creative. I’m still win Streep for the win. After all, Harvey is behind the scenes.
God, those unbalanced frontal compositions in the clip above make me so angry, especially because I’m sure they pulled that bullshit because they saw it in The King’s Speech and “thought it looked cool.”
It was bullshit filmmaking there, and it’s bullshit filmmaking here.
Also, her performance in the above scene is fucking atrocious. It’s like she’s not even listening to her scene partner, probably because of the ridiculously artificial shoot plan. I haven’t seen this movie, but it manages to look like she gives a worse performance here than she did in Doubt, still my gold standard for awful Meryl Streep performances nominated simply because she’s Meryl Streep.
Meryl is just incredible in this role. Here in the UK, the praise for her is overwhelming, and I am sure the critics were more than ready to pounce on the performance.
I also believe, and I say this as someone who worships at the altar of La Streep, that if she doesn’t win this time she will never win another Oscar.
I thought Streep would win the BFCA Best Actress award outright this year based on her incredible media attention…
…looks like I was totally wrong about that.
Brilliant… Just Brilliant
@Julian the emperor-
I see all the nominated films too! Glad I’m not the only one:)
As for The Iron Lady, I love Meryl Streep but I am pretty sure the film will stink, and her performance will be amazing!
I wonder what the breakdown of the votes is. She and Viola can be statistically tied. Who knows.
Wow, this campaign has a shitton more to say about Thatcher than the film itself.
Keifer (and ryan for redirecting): Thanks! I read the review….HA! Funny stuff:)
Only problem: I feel even less inclined to go see this movie now, but I HAVE to: Me and my friends see all Oscar nominated movies every year…cannot NOT do it, therefore!…(I’m going to hate it so bad…)
Sorry about that Ryan – I was ignorant of your policy. (I think it’s a pretty damned funny movie review, though, eh?)
No problem at all, Keifer. The review is original content written by another guy who would like to attract readers to FilmDrunk. He should get benefit of the traffic to his own site. Just intra-blog courtesy.
I want these posters! Just freakin’ genius! Can’t wait to see The Iron Lady this weekend. I don’t know where all the bad press were coming from. I’ve been reading good reviews so far– e.g. Chicago Tribune today gave it 3 out of 4 stars.
Keifer, for more info on Thatcher’s persona, check out Michael Winterbottom’s excellent doc “The Shock Doctrine” (right now watching it for the 3rd time, now live on spanish TV)
Thought I’d list this on this blog. I’m sure this will infuriate a few people. But isn’t controversy all part of the process? Tee hee. Enjoy Vince Mancini’s movie review of “The Iron Lady” from Portland Mercury:
We get the idea, Keifer. Not the policy to post reviews in their entirety, so I’ll link to FilmDrunk for anyone who wants to read the rest.
This is indeed a great campaign (yes, the Banksy comparisons are obvious reference points, but this kind of pop art methodology is older than that, folks!…)
At slantmagazine.com they have been doing “reviews” of movie campaigns and posters for a while now, it is often an enjoyable read. It would be interesting to see AD go in that direction, as well.
the 4th no, the 5th. Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet deserved. She was runner up to this 2, to Zeta Jones, Bullock and now may be Viola Davis’ runner up.
As I said before, I think Viola Davis is fantastic, but the Academy really underapreciates the greatest American Actress of all time. Every time she has a shot it’s the same thing: ”No… this one we don’t know if is gonna be up for an Oscar again, but Meryl… we already nominated her 1 000 000 times… Hilary Swank, Sally Field, Jodie Foster… we have recognized them more, but doesn’t matter… we’ll nominate Meryl 50000 more times. Next year we give it to her…” And this year never comes… If she loses, it will be her 4th runner-up in a roll… and all of them except for Winslet were undeserving… she will never win again this way.
Everyone loves Meryl, but let’s be real – the movie stinks to high hell!
Ryan,
You’re spot on to take note on how the campaign strategy is going. Much more influential than critics awards, so many, so numb, ignored by voters.
In fact, the real battle is all the campaigning between competing studios, shifts in strategy, the “leaks” and dirty politics, what’s said at guest appearances, the spin by studios, all better prognosticators of Oscar.
These posters are smart, internet-friendly, historically-correct for the 80s zeitgeist, images that fuel interest just before it goes into wide release.
I’m glad you approve, Aubrey! You’re a tough customer to please.
🙂
Seriously, we love nothing more than a great classy well-orchestrated Oscar campaign. We’d examine more of them if more were as creative as this one.
Personally, I hope we can all agree that dishing too much about the “dirty tricks ” only perpetuates the dark side and facilitates the attempted tricksters — sorry, but Homey don’t play dat.
the 5th one is 100% pure Banksy.
Wow… did they hire Banksy for the campaign?
If not this is a blatant rip-off of his art.
Love it.
Plus, la Streep is SO due for a third. Even thought I’m on the side that we should always spread the wealth, Streep has waited enough for another victory (not that she may actually think she NEEDS it, but she won’t be complaining). Got the sense she’s a good sport.
Geesh people, it is just a movie reflecting a certain period of a leader’s life. Nothing will change, history has been done. Just watch the movie, see if Meryl deserve to win her 3rd OSCARS and move on….
Meryl for the win. It’s been thirty years. I love Viola. It’s not her time. For what it’s worth, I’m black.
The theme of the film, as far as I can gather before seeing it, is power and powerlessness. The powerlessness of women in politics, the power Thatcher obtained and wielded, breaking barriers for women, and the powerlessness she returns to in her old age, suffering from dementia.
The film seems to neatly avoid the “political” issues, which is presumably why the UK press has been okay with it.
I have reservations about a film divorcing Thatcher from the policies she pursued, but I’ll wait till I see the movie to decide.
In my opinion, Meryl Streep is more deserving of the Oscar than Viola Davis; however, her movie does not help her so much. It is as 2009, she acts, she is wanderful, she gets a nomination, breaks her own record and then someone new takes the Oscar instead.
GO STREEP GO…although you’re destined for another first runnerup.
Meryl Streep is great, as always. The movie is not what I expected and without Meryl it would not be worth. The make up is a great achievement also.
There was a badass commercial during the CCMAs last night.
Hmm.. I just looked on youtube. Now I can’t tell which one it is. Maybe this one. http://youtu.be/CK4NWx7Mxrs
I never understood why people feel the need to politicize films. Yes, some films are created in order to make a political statement, but “The Iron Lady” really doesn’t come across that way. Whether you like Thatcher or not, what she was a part of happened 25 years ago.
Anyhow, these are great posters that relly embrace any controversy that the film may insight. Clever and very much out of the 80s.
Those posters are awesome! Shame the film isn’t…
Brilliant!
If only the film could match these posters’ passion regarding Thatcher.
Dear god, those posters are GENIUS.
I agree. This is a great campaign. Does the movie live up to it? Haven’t seen it yet, so can’t comment myself, but I have a hunch a lot of critics would lament it doesn’t. Still I’m excited to see the film, if only for Meryl Streep’s performance, and Jim Broadbent too.