Let Them All Talk (2020)

Jack and I loved this story of a Pulitzer-winning author who brings her nephew and two of her college friends to cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2. Meryl Streep plays the author, Lucas Hedges the nephew, Candice Bergen an angry Texan saleswoman, and Dianne Wiest an activist from Seattle (she has the best lines). Gemma Chan plays Streep's 30-something agent.

Steven Soderbergh directs from a sparkling script by Deborah Eisenberg, and he is the cinematographer and editor as well, using the pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard, respectively. 

The movie was primarily shot during an actual two-week QM2 voyage in August 2019 and the sets, i.e. the decor of the ship, are magnificent. Apparently Soderbergh used a wheelchair for the tracking shots. And the production did not have full control of the ship, but the other passengers apparently weren't very interested. I would've been!

As a fan of composer Thomas Newman, I'm streaming his jaunty score with a subscription to Apple Music. It can be had for free on Spotify

Streep was last blogged (today!) for The Prom, Hedges for Honey Boy, Bergen for Book Club, Wiest for Sisters, Soderbergh for The Laundromat, and Newman for 1917. Eisenberg is an award-winning short story writer and writing professor and Chan is set to reprise her role as Astrid in the upcoming sequel to Crazy Rich Asians.

We watched it on HBO December 18, three days after we saw The Prom, making a Streep mini-festival. 

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are in our lifeboat, averaging 89%, while its audiences are a sinking 49. We recommend it.