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November 13, 2018 at 1:26 pm #1202674319
Hemingway should’ve won! 🙂
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ReplyNovember 3, 2018 at 3:50 pm #1202667616Can You Ever Forgive Me?
In 1967, the year of Spencer Tracy’s death, up-and-coming writer Lee Israel broke through with a devastatingly great profile on Katharine Hepburn, published in Esquire. Over the following two decades, Israel penned a trio of celebrity biographies, one of which, Kilgallen (a portrait of journalist and game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen), was lauded as among the finest bios of the 1980s.
By the 1990s, however, her past works proved long forgotten, as Israel found herself earning attention not for her biographies or countless magazine articles but rather her recent criminal activities.
Director Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, based on Israel’s eponymous memoirs, opens on Israel (Melissa McCarthy) who, in 1991, is struggling to make ends meet, months behind on her rent and devastated that she cannot afford medical treatment for her beloved cat. Israel is desperate for an advance on her latest project, a biography of Fanny Brice, but her agent (the formidable Jane Curtin) cannot make that happen, nor does she terribly want to. The irksome, surly Israel has burned bridge after bridge in recent years and has no industry allies to speak of.
At last, Israel finds a companion in Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), a vivacious grifter who shares in her disdain for society and dependency on the bottle. Hock isn’t the least bit shaken when Israel presents her grand scheme to bring home that elusive dough – she is going to earn a living fabricating signed personal letters from deceased, high-profile writers, from Brice to Noel Coward to Dorothy Parker. Israel finds fleeting success but, when suspicions are raised around her documents, Hock steps in as a partner in crime to sell them on her behalf. With the FBI on their trail, however, is it inevitable that Judgment Day lurks on the horizon.
With a sparkling screenplay from Jeff Whitty and the reliably amazing Nicole Holofcener, and led by a pair of actors in career-best form, wholeheartedly committed to the material, Can You Ever Forgive Me? ultimately emerges one of the year’s very best pictures.
McCarthy and Grant have a dazzling rapport, with each going to town on the comic and dramatic opportunities presented to them. Not to be overlooked is the rest of this splendid ensemble cast, including Curtin (who slays in her two scenes), Anna Deavere Smith (superb as exasperated ex) and particularly Dolly Wells, warm and perceptive as Anna, a book shop owner who takes a liking to Israel. A dinner between Anna and Israel proves one of the film’s most absorbing and affecting scenes, in a film full of them.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? will be richly deserving of every accolade it inevitably earns for McCarthy and Grant – but I sure hope they aren’t the picture’s lone recognition this awards season.
A
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ReplyOctober 22, 2018 at 10:54 am #1202659045Halloween
Michael Myers, it’s so nice to have you back where you belong. You may be in your sexagenarian years, yet you continue to bash in brains and slice and dice horny teenagers with masterful precision. It’s just too bad the picture around you this time doesn’t operate at your same commanding level.
I am a Halloween nut, through and through. Not only do I of course worship John Carpenter’s 1978 original – both among the finest pictures of its decade and greatest horror films of all-time – I’m even quite taken with Halloween II and Halloween: H20. Hell, throw Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers on television and I’ll cancel all of my prior commitments!
So, you can imagine I was quite surprised and more than a little heartbroken as I found myself not so enamored with the latest entry in the franchise, David Gordon Green’s Halloween – a follow-up to the Carpenter original that opts to pretend all prior sequels never came to fruition. Perhaps most key of all is it erases that pesky development, which first arouse in Halloween II, that Michael and Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode were siblings. This is something I was completely down for, yet Green’s Halloween doesn’t even satisfy at the same levels of Halloween II or H20.
In the dismal Halloween: Resurrection, Michael found himself confronted by the craze over reality television. This time around, it’s true-crime podcasting, presented in the form of a pair of British journalists (Jefferson Hall and Rhian Rees) who, 40 years following Michael’s murderous rampage in the first Halloween, pay the psychopath a visit at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. You see, Michael has been imprisoned there since his capture by Dr. Loomis (RIP Donald Pleasance). Now, with Dr. Loomis having passed on, he’s being treated by another eccentric doc, Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer).
After egging Michael on, both showing him his former mask and bringing up Laurie, the podcasters pay a visit to none other than the sole survivor herself. Laurie has spent the past 40 years battling PTSD and preparing herself and her family for what she sees as Michael’s inevitable return. She’s been married and divorced twice and lost custody of her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), who now has a teenage daughter of her own, Allyson (Andi Matichak).
Laurie, no surprise, hasn’t the faintest interest in cooperating with the Brits. She’s far more focused on her old foe, who conveniently is being transferred to a new facility on the eve of Halloween. It should come as scant surprise that Michael of course manages an escape, gets his hands on his old mask and greets Haddonfield with a long overdue, plenty grisly return. If Laurie is prepared, the rest of the community, per usual, is very much susceptible to Michael’s prey.
Never before has this series been such a meandering slog as it is in its opening half hour. The insertion of true-crime podcasting into the franchise must have sounded timely and inspired on the page but it’s not the least bit compelling on the screen. Once Michael is back in action, the proceedings do at least muster the same satisfaction as a competent slasher picture, yet it’s never nearly on the same level as Carpenter’s original.
As always, Curtis gives it her all as Laurie and especially provides the picture a boost in its final half hour, a cat-and-mouse duel between she and Michael that is claustrophobic in the best sense. Unfortunately, the supporting cast around her isn’t terribly memorable and there is at least one character and plot twist that, thankfully briefly, sends the film jumping the shark. Kudos to the very funny Jibrail Nantambu, portraying the only character (besides Laurie) you’re genuinely rooting for Michael not to knock off.
Green does a fine job staging the rousing grand finale but the rest of his direction is strictly workmanlike stuff, decidedly not Carpenter-caliber. Speaking of Carpenter, however, his musical score, jazzed up a bit this time around, remains a stirring winner.
If Halloween is hardly the worst entry in the series, it also falls tragically short of the greatness once so present in this franchise.
B-
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ReplyOctober 2, 2018 at 7:40 am #1202644651Even less interested now
For the finest in film reviews and awards analysis, please visit me at The Awards Connection!
ReplyAugust 18, 2018 at 7:23 am #1202611865I would certainly replace Pacino (the one weak link in that sterling line-up) with Reynolds. Allen wasn’t much of a factor in Best Actor – the United Artists awards campaign for Manhattan was curiously half-hearted, with most of their chips stacked on Apocalypse Now. Many actually thought Dudley Moore would make the cut for 10.
THE OSCAR 100 (#15-11): Charlie Chaplin, Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore, Ida Kaminska and Gregory Peck
ReplyAugust 7, 2018 at 6:58 am #1202604459Even with a baffling June release, Patinkin and Abraham will probably still make the Emmy cut lol.
THE OSCAR 100 (#20-16): Jodie Foster, Martin Landau, Jessica Lange, Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft
ReplyJuly 17, 2018 at 8:52 am #1202588823Watch Cher land a Best Supporting Actress Globe nom LOL.
THE OSCAR 100 (#35-31): Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Joanne Woodward, Joan Crawford and Angela Bassett
ReplyJuly 13, 2018 at 7:40 am #1202585734Dame Maggie will be the third-oldest Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee, behind Gloria Stuart and Ruby Dee. 🙂
THE OSCAR 100 (#40-36): Ellen Burstyn, Katharine Hepburn, Julianne Moore, Ian McKellen and Roy Scheider
ReplyJuly 11, 2018 at 1:48 pm #1202583270Not terribly surprising – the nostalgia for Mad About You is negligible at best.
THE OSCAR 100 (#40-36): Ellen Burstyn, Katharine Hepburn, Julianne Moore, Ian McKellen and Roy Scheider
ReplyMay 31, 2018 at 8:17 am #1202556675I’m stunned it’s lasted this long.
THE OSCAR 100 (#65-61): Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Vivien Leigh, Jane Darwell and Faye Dunaway
ReplyMay 21, 2018 at 10:44 am #1202551154Foolio – your selection of Lauren Bacall in The Fan for Best Actress ’81 might just be my favorite thing ever.
THE OSCAR 100 (#70-66): Jane Alexander, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Martin Landau and Natalie Portman
ReplyMay 14, 2018 at 10:13 am #1202546781Sugar was derided in large part due to unfavorable comparisons between its leading lady (Elaine Joyce) and Marilyn Monroe. The show itself actually earned decent reviews but audiences largely stayed away, viewing the production as inferior to the film. They’ve sure got their work cut out for them here.
THE OSCAR 100 (#75-71): Agnes Moorehead, Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Hagen
ReplyMay 8, 2018 at 8:38 am #1202543423In that tiny theatre, I would think it has scant trouble selling out most nights.
THE OSCAR 100 (#80-76): Dustin Hoffman, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Fredric March and Elizabeth Taylor
ReplyMay 8, 2018 at 7:10 am #1202543366I say Rains deserved to triumph for both Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Casablanca.
THE OSCAR 100 (#80-76): Dustin Hoffman, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Fredric March and Elizabeth Taylor
ReplyApril 13, 2018 at 7:57 am #1202529068I highly doubt this generates the same interest/ratings as Roseanne and Will & Grace. At least, in the Trump era, there’s some rationale behind a Murphy Brown reboot – what’s the reason for this?
THE OSCAR 100 (#100-96): Kathleen Turner, Shelley Winters, Rosie Perez, Lesley Ann Warren and Kathy Bates
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