Trying to narrow Meryl Streep’s film career to just 10 performances is a good way to start an argument. Leave off “Out of Africa” and someone will object. Same for “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Julie & Julia,” “The Iron Lady” or “Mamma Mia!” which — money, money, money — remains her highest-grossing film.Full disclosure: None of those movies, worthy as they may be, are on this list. Then again, with a résumé this absurdly stacked (a record 21 Oscar nominations and three wins spread over nearly five decades of work), somebody was bound to be mad.Early on, Streep, now 76, became synonymous with impeccable accents and a level of technical precision that could feel almost superhuman. What gets lost in that mythology is how often she confounded expectations just as audiences thought they had her figured out.Twenty years after “The Devil Wears Prada” introduced a younger generation to Streep through Miranda Priestly, her terrifyingly composed editor of a high-gloss fashion magazine, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” arrives in theaters Friday, with Miranda now trying to hold on to power as the publishing world around her collapses.Streep herself has rarely stayed still for that long. Consider these 10 performances less a list of greatest hits than a map of how she has continually refused to be pinned down.
