Can You Ever Forgive Me?: A Dramatic Role Turns to Sardonic Wit

Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Version: Library Blu-Ray borrow

Not all writers are cat people, but the most interesting ones seem to be. Lee Israel was an eccentric one, and the 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me? explores all her foibles. With Comedian Melissa McCarthy in the starring role, it turns a dramatic role into an often sardonic one with wit and sarcasm as only she can whip at you with an eye or a wink or a sigh. She is great in this memoir based on the adaptation of the book by the same title and makes it her own.

Lee Israel was an author profiling 1970s and '80s women celebrities. But eventually the women she covered grew out of favor and she had trouble making a decent living. One day while doing research she discovered a celebrity letter and found she could sell it at a New York City bookstore and if she ran into letters or notes with spicier, funnier content she could hawk them for even more. Thus began a new career inventing witty memorabilia for sale, and she was quite good at it. Yet, it turned out she wasn't quite as good at it as collectors were at spotting fakes. Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes you through the twists and turns of turning that trade, feeling guilty about it, learning to live with it, and then living with the consequences of discovery.

Joining McCarthy in this breezy romp is the Brit Richard E. Grant, who plays Jack, the homeless gay man-about-town and eventual colleague in crime. He is every bit as genuine in the role as is McCarthy in hers and the two become comrades in trade, although he isn't quite so witting.

Both are socially awkward inepts who fall into each other's orbits quite by accident but become close friends and allies -- their only real friends, actually. In one scene, Jack must help Lee clean her apartment so the supervisor can bring in an exterminator to treat flies, only to discover she hasn't cleaned the apartment for ages. The cat has defecated under the bed and Jack nearly vomits when he looks there to clean. Now, that is a friend! From then on Jack is there to help her clean up the other mess she creates in her new endeavor.

My only real complaints about Can You Ever Forgive Me? are that the film doesn't really take full advantage of the character social ineptness -- there are clues, but if they didn't reference it you might not realize it. And while McCarthy is cheeky in parts of this story, this film doesn't take full advantage of her many comedic talents, although likely the material simply doesn't provide for it. The film becomes a sad tale about two lonely people who just can't catch a break, despite apparent talents to live life otherwise.

John Wick: Chapter 2: Zounds! Practically Non-stop Action.

Movie Review: John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
Version: Library borrow

Zounds! There's more action in John Wick: Chapter 2 than in almost any other action movie I've ever seen, including the original John Wick! It's practically non-stop.

John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) returns from his last romp in the original movie, during which the love of his life, his car, was stolen. He retrieves it from the bad guys in a gigantic gun battle chase scene, then drinks a toast for peace to the head bad guy and returns home, where he buries his guns and his loot. From there, everything goes to toast.

Santino D'Antonio (played by Riccardo Scamarcia) visits Wick to call in a chip of service. Wick has retired from service as a hit man, but D'Antonio insists Wick must honor the chip. Wick says no. So D'Antonio blows up with Wick's home with Wick in it. Wick hunts him down in Rome to finally honor the chip, which it turns out is to kill D'Antonio's sister, who has claimed the family's seat at the world crime table, which D'Antonio wants. Wick still doesn't want the job, but it's his only way out. D'Antonio's sister is to be enshrined in the organization in the Colosseum in Rome that evening, so Wick goes on a shopping spree buying clothes, guns, knives, and the whole shot to take down D'Antonio's sister and her gang of protectors who will go after him afterwards.  What follows is another wild fight scene in, under, and around the Colosseum, going on in part of which is a full celebration with a rock concert. Wick is deft with a gun and hand-to-hand combat!

D'Antonio must, of course, revenge the death of his sister, so he puts out a $7 million worldwide bounty on Wick. That creates another rumpus gun battle chase scene as John Wick tries to get away, finally arriving in New York City, where he finds refuge at the hotel owned by Winston (played by Ian McShane). From there he leaves to hunt down D'Antonio, who is contemplating the lavish artworks of his late father at a monolithic art museum. To get to him, Wick seeks the help of the mastermind of the underground, the Bowery King (played by Laurence Fishburne). And once inside the museum, Wick chases after D'Antonio shooting his way through galleries and finally into a mirrored modern-art display that would be the pursuer's worst nightmare. Watching D'Antonio's back is the dangerous Ares (played by Ruby Rose), who can't ever quite keep up with Wick.

In the final scenes D'Antonio gets back to Winston's hotel of refuge for thieves and crime bosses, where rules are rules. But John Wick does the unthinkable, and finds himself once again the target of a worldwide bounty hunt.

I've told you a lot about the plot without spoiling anything of significance. I did so to show you how much action there is in this film. Reeves must have been worn out after a day, a week, a month of shooting this film. Pistols, semi-automatic rifles, shot guns, knives - pencils - all weapons in his all too capable hands. And nothing and no one can best him. He leaves bodies in the streets and alleyways like pigeons leave droppings on statues.

Some have suggested this is just a thin-plotted movie to serve the interests of gun play, but I disagree. The gun play very much serves a bigger, more interesting plot in very exciting settings. The gun play is choreographed beautifully and flawlessly like a dance ensemble. And the cast ensemble is delicious in its evil and its cunning.

If you like an action film, if you like a gun battle movie, if you like an movie with a super anti-hero who just can't be stopped despite all the odds being against him, then John Wick Chapter 2 should be perfect for you. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed it.