Ironweed

Ironweed (1987) is Héctor Babenco's Depression-era drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Albany, New York, Halloween 1938: Francis Phelan trudges back into the town he fled decades ago — a former big-league ballplayer turned alcoholic drifter, hounded by a guilt he can't outrun.

Helen Archer (Meryl Streep), once a radio singer and now sick and all but homeless, drifts at his side. The two try to survive one more freezing night while the dead keep crowding in: Francis digs graves in the cemetery where his infant son is buried, and the ghosts talk back. Jack Nicholson plays a man hollowed out by a single unforgivable mistake.

William Kennedy adapted his own Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for the screen, and Tom Waits turns up in a supporting role. Both Nicholson and Streep were up for Academy Awards here. It's heavy, deliberately slow work about guilt and conscience — no easy night in, but the two leads give performances you'll carry for years. Stream Ironweed (1987) online on iFILM.