Review of Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) by Mmadnessgames — 25 Feb 2019

The film world appears to be going crazy.

Black Panther was nominated for six Oscars and Melissa McCarthy was nominated for basically playing herself? Don't get me wrong. I like Melissa McCarthy, a lot. I thought she was great in St.The film world appears to be going crazy.

Black Panther was nominated for six Oscars and Melissa McCarthy was nominated for basically playing herself?

Don't get me wrong. I like Melissa McCarthy, a lot. I thought she was great in St. Vincent, Spy and Heat... I even liked her in Tammy.

She's a really good comic actor (maybe the best comic actress of her time) and a reasonably good dramatic actor. But, she's under-utilised and frequently miscast.

She should be more selective when choosing her roles.

The Boss & Life of the Party were awful.

I SERIOUSLY doubt Lee Israel has the same sardonic personality as Melissa McCarthy does on-screen. But, maybe she does... Either way: why is McCarthy nominated for an Oscar for playing herself?

I don't like biopics. I usually avoid them. In this case, I made an exception because I've always felt McCarthy's talents are wasted and I was eager to see her first Oscar nominated role.

The story (of literary forger Lee Israel) is interesting, but not interesting enough to make into a two hour film.

Richard E. Grant is great, as always, but he's playing to his strengths. Yet another eccentric British alcoholic... But - again - I seriously doubt Jack Hock happens to have Grant's personality... He's nominated for the same over-the-top caricature he's been milking his entire career. Might as well have been nominated for Hudson Hawk.

I turned the film off halfway, after forcing myself through dozens of scenes of McCarthy forging literary documents and Grant being a drunk idiot.