fairy tale Mirror Mirror, which was all pomp and no circumstance. And even cinephiles would have a hard time recalling Fireflies in the Garden or Larry Crowne.

Which brings us to the present. Roberts, at 45, has sprung from movie jail with Joker-like gusto and turned in arguably the finest screen performance of her career in August: Osage County, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday night. Her turn is a master class in deconstruction and a role that brings her career full circle, from Steel Magnolias to the spectacular now.

This is the rawest and the most assured performance of Roberts’s career.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning play of the same name by Tracy Letts, the film centers on the dysfunctional Weston family of(Dermot Mulroney); and Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) drops in from nearby. The Weston clan is joined by Violet’s sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale); her husband, Charles (Chris Cooper); and their spineless son, Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch). They all convene at the Weston family home, and over the next several days, a series of ghosts come out of the closet.

August: Osage County is directed by former ER showrunner John Wells from a screenplay by Letts and produced by George Clooney, whom Wells gave his first big break on the aforementioned medical drama. Streep, of course, will be on the receiving end of plenty of awards talk for her showy turn, which includes a series of unglamorous close-ups and a mesmerizing 20-minute dinner sequence in which she verbally undresses every single