Can You Ever Forgive Me?

New York, 1991. Lee Israel, a biographer whose career is over, cannot make rent. She begins forging letters from dead celebrities and selling them to collectors, and what she finds is not only money but the readership she had lost. Melissa McCarthy plays Israel and Richard E. Grant plays Jack Hock, who moves the letters. Before it became this film it was another one. Julianne Moore was to star with Nicole Holofcener directing; both left in 2015 over creative differences. McCarthy took the part and Marielle Heller took the chair. Holofcener stayed on the script, and the screenplay she wrote with Jeff Whitty won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. McCarthy was nominated for Best Actress and Grant for Best Supporting Actor. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 98 percent. On a 10 million dollar budget it grossed 12.5 million worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like small character films and comedians tested in drama. Who it is not for: anyone who needs a likeable protagonist. Israel is still sour, still lying and still unrepentant when it ends.