Music of the Heart

Music of the Heart (1999) is a drama directed by Wes Craven — watch it online on iFILM. Meryl Streep plays Roberta Guaspari, a violin teacher who, fresh from a collapsing marriage, takes a job at a public school in East Harlem and starts doing the thing everyone said couldn't work: getting kids from the neighborhood to play classical violin.

This is a true story. Guaspari spent a decade building her program at Central Park East School against budget cuts and institutional indifference. Aidan Quinn and Angela Bassett round out the cast, and Gloria Estefan appears in the film's emotional finale — a real Carnegie Hall concert that brought together Guaspari's former students alongside professional musicians who backed the cause.

Craven, best known for horror, shot something spare and direct here. Streep earned an Academy Award nomination for the role. Stream Music of the Heart (1999) online on iFILM.