By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
There’s Oscar buzz about Melissa McCarthy’s snarling performance as a cranky, slovenly, misanthropic Manhattan author who is unable to pay her rent or care for her ailing cat in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
In 1991 after her unauthorized Estee Lauder biography flops, Lee Israel (McCarthy) can’t get an advance to write about vaudevillian Fanny Brice — aka “Funny Girl.” Indeed, her long-suffering literary agent (Jane Curtin) suggests she find a new line of work.
Doing library research, frustrated Lee comes across a letter from Fanny Brice. Surreptitiously tucking it away, Lee peddles it and discovers — to her amazement — that there’s a big memorabilia market.
Since collectors prefer literary spice over stock correspondence, Lee starts to embellish forged letters with caustic witticisms, cleverly channeling Noel Coward, Edna Ferber, Louise Brooks, Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker (hence the title).
For authenticity, larcenous Lee collects vintage typewriters and old stationery, dutifully tracing celebrity signatures until she replicates them perfectly.
Surly, scotch-swilling Lee confides her criminal enterprise to her drinking buddy, amiable Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), a flamboyantly gay British hustler who takes some of Lee’s counterfeit documents to used bookstores where she might be recognized.
There’s also a sensitive subplot involving lonely Lee befriending Anna (Dolly Wells), a shy bookseller who’d like more intimacy than Lee is capable of.
Eventually, of course, the FBI catches on, taking Lee to court. Lee died at age 75 in 2014, but in her memoir, Lee estimates she wrote 100,000 words during her forgery career, considering them her greatest literary achievement: “I was a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker.”
Screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty craft a dandy crime caper, insightfully directed by Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”).
Melissa McCarthy brings an anguished vulnerability that to this curmudgeonly role — one that might just win her an Academy Award, along with Richard E. Grant as Best Supporting Actor.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is a poignant, engrossing 8, hovering between comedy and tragedy.
“Beautiful Boy” is the true story of a frantic father and his son’s crystal methamphetamine addiction.
Set in Northern California, it revolves around veteran Marin County journalist David Sheff (Steve Carell), who lives with his troubled 18 year-old son Nic (Timothee Chalamet) from previous marriage, his second wife Karen (Maura Tierney) and their two young kids.
Although David communicates with Nic’s mother, his first wife Vicki (Amy Ryan) who lives in Los Angeles, their relationship is definitely acrimonious, particularly when David realizes how skilled Nic is at emotionally manipulating both his parents.
One of the most affecting scenes shows David’s visit to an addiction specialist (Timothy Hutton), who indicates that his son’s chances for recovery are dim. His escalating feeling of helplessness is palpable.
Based on twin memoirs by David and Nic, it’s adapted in a repetitive, nonlinear fashion by Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen (“The Broken Circle Breakdown”) and Luke Davies, candidly exploring what it’s like to live with a user or to recover and then relapse several times after a period of remission.
While developing the film, the director entrenched himself with the Sheffs, surfing with Nic and taking long walks with David, noting: “There’s a sense of unconditional love in their family that is amazing and beautiful … It may be one of the reasons why Nic found his way out.”
There have been a multitude of movies about drug addiction and, unfortunately, this doesn’t pack the punch of “Trainspotting,” “Sid and Nancy,” “The Basketball Diaries,” “Drugstore Cowboy,” “Panic in Needle Park,” “The Man With the Golden Arm,” etc.
Nevertheless, Steve Carell (“Last Flag Flying”) and Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name”) deliver convincing performances, culminating in a recital of one of Charles Bukowski’s most memorable poems.
An estimated 20 million Americans are coping with substance-abuse and an estimated 72,000 died from drug overdoses in 2017, as the opioid epidemic spreads. “Addiction knows no class, knows no race, knows no boundaries, and it’s a modern-day crisis,” concludes Chalamet.
On the Granger Gauge, “Beautiful Boy” is a cautionary, straightforward 6 about the sinister seductiveness of Meth.
Disney’s big-budget attempt to adapt E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 fantasy and Tchaikovsky’s ballet — “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”—is a muddled mess, comparable to “A Wrinkle in Time.”
In Victorian London, inventive young Clara Stahlbaum (Mackenzie Foy) is in the attic demonstrating her elaborate Rube Goldberg-type mousetrap to her younger brother Fritz (Tom Sweet).
Although their mother Marie (Anna Madeley) recently died, their doleful father (Matthew Macfadyen) and older sister Louise (Ellie Bamber) are determined to celebrate the holiday. Clara’s gift is an ornate egg-shaped box with a cryptic message “Everything you needs is inside.” But there’s no key.
On Christmas Eve, Clara’s godfather Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman) sets up an elaborate treasure hunt, so each child can find his/her own gift. Clara’s is the key, which is snatched by a mischievous mouse, leading her into an “Alice in Wonderland”-ish parallel world where time moves faster.
On her quest, Clara is befriended by a Nutcracker soldier, Capt. Philip Hoffman (Jayden Fowora-Knight), who tells her that her mother was Queen of the Four Realms. So Clara is greeted as a Princess by Sugar Plum (Keira Knightley with cotton candy hair) from the Land of Sweets, Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbetz) from the Land of the Flowers and icicle-bearded Shiver (Richard E. Grant) from the Land of Snowflakes.
Clara’s told that the fourth realm belongs to towering Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), who has declared war, and Clara is expected to stop it because her mother — mechanical-minded Marie — created this living Toyland through engineering/physics. But, of course, things are not as they seem.
Meanwhile, lovely ballerina Misty Copeland twirls on a picture-book stage set and there’s a gigantic CGI mouse that’s comprised of a multitude of tiny mice moving as one.
So what went wrong?
Perhaps it began with Ashleigh Powell’s revisionist script which was subsequently changed by the original director Lasse Hallstrom, then replacement director Joe Johnson — with additional material by uncredited Tom McCarthy. Lacking a unified vision, both directors wallow in chaotic, extravagant details.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is a dizzying, floundering 5. Bah, humbug.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
