*****

Can You Ever Forgive Me?-sp

When Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a talented writer who profiled famous writers of her time was no longer able to sell her books, she turned to forgery, creating and selling letters in the style of Dorothy Parker, Fanny Brice, Noel Coward and others. She befriended an equally lonely gay man (Richard E. Grant) who for a while helped her with her con artist scheme.

This is a true story based on the memoirs of Ms. Israel with a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty. The film was directed by Marielle Heller. Ms. McCarthy dominates the screen portraying the very sad life of Ms. Israel. Both her performance and that of Mr. Grant deserved the Oscar nominations which they received for their performances.

As the title implies, you will come away from this cinematic performance with a melancholy feeling, but you also will know you have seen an excellent movie. (2019)

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Please Give – rm – This Woody Allanesque movie set in New York City written and directed by Nicole Holofcener deserves more than the nearly empty movie theatre that we saw it in on weekend evening. It is a slice of life movie that doesn’t go anywhere except that some of the characters seem to be a little better off at the end of the movie than they were at the beginning and the viewer has had an insightful 90 minutes into these people laced with some humor. A husband and wife own an upscale furniture store in Manhattan where they buy furniture of deceased people at low prices and sell high. The wife (Elizabeth Keener) is a do gooder by nature and tries to slip twenty dollar bills to street people or those that look like street people much to the chagrin of their 15 year old daughter ( Sarah Steele) who is struggling with her acne and her desire for expensive jeans. Oliver Platt is the teddy bear type husband who while devoted to his family does have a slight itch. There is a crabby elderly woman next door played by veteran actress Ann Morgan Guilbert, who is nearly 80 herself, in a standout performance. She has two contrasting granddaughters who visit regularly to take care of her. Mary ( Amanda Peet) is the older by five years who makes no bones about the factthat she is waiting for her grandmother die and insensitively will say so as well as other things that are best left unsaid. Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) is the sweeter grandchild who is good and loyal to her grandmother. As noted the story really doesn’t go any place but we felt good when it was over as we walked out of our empty movie theater. (2010)