Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

[Jake Lipson]

Title: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime

Director: Marielle Heller

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Ben Falcone, Gregory Korostishevsky, Jane Curtin, Stephen Spinella, Christian Navarro, Pun Bandhu, Erik LaRay Harvey, Brandon Scott Jones, Shae D'Lyn, Rosal Colon, Anna Deavere Smith, Marc Evan Jackson, Tina Benko, Kevin Carolan, Roberta Wallach, Marcella Lowery, Sandy Rosenberg, Ben Rauch, Ethel Fisher, Chris Lamberth, Joanna Adler, Mary B. McCann, Michael Laurence, Michael Cyril Creighton, Alice Kremelberg, Moisés Acevedo, Lucy DeVito, Josh Evans, Ricky Garcia, Charlotte Mary Wen, Marcus Choi, Marmee Regine Cosico, Justin Vivian Bond, Tim Cummings, Havilah Brewster

Release: 2018-10-19

Runtime: 107

Plot: When bestselling celebrity biographer Lee Israel is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Has anyone else seen this yet? I was surprised I couldn't find a thread for it already. I saw it last weekend and thought it was great.

Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, a down-on-her-luck writer who resorts to forging letters allegedly by prominent deceased writers but actually authored by her in order to make ends meet. This is an objectively terrible thing to do, but McCarthy makes you sympathize with her and (almost) root for her, which of course is very hard, but she pulls it off and is quite endearing in the role. There are moments when she is really funny in it, but it is essentially a dramatic performance, and it's really great work in a role that is outside of her normal zone.

It's the best performance of her career, and it makes you wonder why she continues to make such garbage movies when she's working with her husband. I like McCarthy's work when she's good, but her ability to be good seems to rest on whether or not she has good collaborators and a good script, which her husband frankly doesn't give her. Here, she's working with director Marielle Heller, who also made The Diary of a Teenage Girl a couple years ago, which I liked very much. She again delivers a tight, engaging character piece and is able to help McCarthy elevate her work.

Richard E. Grant is also terrific as Lee's friend/partner-in-crime Jack Hock, and I think both of them are headed for Oscar nominations.

I'd highly recommend the film if you can find it near you. It's currently in limited release but presumably continuing to expand, so hopefully more of you can find it soon. Although it's playing at our arthouse and is certainly good enough to be there, there is nothing particularly weird or limiting that would prevent a general mainstream audience from embracing the movie, and I hope that it has legs and enjoys a solid run. Is it the best movie of the year? No -- but I enjoyed it very much and think most people who find it probably will too.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I guess no one else here wanted to talk about this, but I really liked it a lot.

The Digital Bits is reporting today that Can You Ever Forgive Me? will come to disc on February 19 as a DVD-only, no Blu-ray.

What gives, Fox?

I know it wasn't an enormous success, but it did pretty well for itself ($8 million from only 555 theaters) and was nominated for three Oscars.

The Old Man and the Gun got a Blu-ray release from Fox Searchlight and it only grossed $11 million. Only $3 million more, and no Oscar nominations to speak of for that.

I am very disappointed in this decision and hope it is reversed.

 

[bujaki]

Richard E. Grant deserves all the praise he's been getting. No BD is a stupid decision.

 

[Jake Lipson]

To support the film's digital release, Fox put up a 10-minute clip on YouTube. For those of you who haven't seen it yet and/or need convincing of how good it is, here's a sample:

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I saw this a couple of months ago, but must not have seen this thread. It's a terrific film with some tremendous acting performances. They also did a pretty accurate job in portraying early-90s New York City.

I think it's a film that just about anyone would enjoy. 20 years ago, this probably would have gotten a wide release.

 

[Jake Lipson]

20 years ago, this probably would have gotten a wide release.

I agree. It's interesting to me that McCarthy can get apparent dreck like The Happytime Murders and Life of the Party into wide release based on her presence, but this one which was actually good and seemed to me to have wide appeal was regulated to a small release.