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Queer movie:"Can you ever forgive me?"
Jan. 12th, 2019 04:41 pmMelissa McCarthy and Richard Grant are so great in this rather literary movie that can be summed up with the popular phrase, "Be gay, do crimes."
McCarthy plays queer author Lee Israel, an writer of biographies whose career is faltering. She has no money, her cat is sick, and her agent won't return her calls. Isreal is a unrepentant alcoholic, and at a bar she befrieds Jack Hock, an aging gay man who shares her acerbic sense of humor and love of pranks. They are an absolute delight to watch.
Israel discovers that she has a talent for forging letters from famous people such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, and that she can sell these letters for hundreds of dollars each. Suddenly her bills are paid and she can afford to eat at restaurants. She eventually recruits Jack to help her.
This is a quiet movie focused on Israel's troubles and her humor and her friendship with Jack. It was so incredibly refreshing to see people on screen that looked like real people. There are multiple fat women, multiple older people, etc. Israel wears what look like second-hand lesbian styles. It's also incredibly rare to see a story like this that is about queer people but isn't about a romantic relationship or trauma. I can't even think of another one. This film is a gem. Based on a true story.
Content notes: heavy drinking, drugs, the cat eventually dies. Rated R mostly for language as far as i can tell.
McCarthy plays queer author Lee Israel, an writer of biographies whose career is faltering. She has no money, her cat is sick, and her agent won't return her calls. Isreal is a unrepentant alcoholic, and at a bar she befrieds Jack Hock, an aging gay man who shares her acerbic sense of humor and love of pranks. They are an absolute delight to watch.
Israel discovers that she has a talent for forging letters from famous people such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, and that she can sell these letters for hundreds of dollars each. Suddenly her bills are paid and she can afford to eat at restaurants. She eventually recruits Jack to help her.
This is a quiet movie focused on Israel's troubles and her humor and her friendship with Jack. It was so incredibly refreshing to see people on screen that looked like real people. There are multiple fat women, multiple older people, etc. Israel wears what look like second-hand lesbian styles. It's also incredibly rare to see a story like this that is about queer people but isn't about a romantic relationship or trauma. I can't even think of another one. This film is a gem. Based on a true story.
Content notes: heavy drinking, drugs, the cat eventually dies. Rated R mostly for language as far as i can tell.
