{"id":12028,"date":"2019-01-11T18:54:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T22:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=12028"},"modified":"2019-01-11T19:03:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T23:03:46","slug":"credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Credit in the Straight World: I watch “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Can You Ever Forgive Me?<\/em> is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody around her beyond the point where they\u2019re willing to help her get paid, is behind on her rent and living in depressive squalor. When illness threatens her only friend (a cat\u2026 no judgment) Lee has to get cash into the vet\u2019s hands fast. A coincidence sends her spiraling into the world of literary letter forgery, as she passes off her own missives as the work of Fanny Brice, Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker. She\u2019s new to all this and makes mistakes from the very beginning, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s much of a spoiler to say she does not get away with it.<\/p>\n

What makes Forgive<\/em> such a joy to watch is the attention and love given to Lee, her frenemy Jack Hock (RICHARD E. GRANT YESSSSSS), and her world. Lee\u2019s an awful person, she makes all kinds of choices where even a mere audience member is like, \u201cGirl\u2026 that\u2019s not right\u201d and she does it with glee, and the movie doesn\u2019t cover for her, which is why I loved her. In maybe her second scene she steals a coat at a party, and sneaks off with this hilariously smug smile. Her doomed caper is fueled by desperation, but also by that gleeful omnivengeance: Take that, you bastards!<\/em> I think maybe Victor Morton<\/a> pointed out that from the beginning of the movie to the end, one thing about Lee does not change: She\u2019s driven by the need to have her intelligence recognized. She may not have gotten away with crime, she may shed friends like her cat sheds fur, but you guys, she\u2019s as clever as Dorothy Parker and now everybody<\/em> has to admit it! That\u2019s her tragic flaw, it\u2019s a sad one, it\u2019s a pathetic disorder in the hierarchy of loves; and it is something most people who\u2019d watch this film in the first place have felt. It\u2019s that line from Wag the Dog<\/em>, \u201cI want credit!\u201d As who doesn\u2019t<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s loneliness is drawn with compassion, though without pity\u2013she earned it, she wouldn\u2019t know how to live without it, but even antisocial misanthropes feel things<\/em>, you know? She\u2019s still a mammal<\/em>. Her friendship with Jack is delightful. They\u2019re so gleefully awful together, when their agendas mesh, and so painfully at odds when they don\u2019t mesh.<\/p>\n

Tim Markatos<\/a> finally got me to watch this movie by saying it\u2019s about a queer friendship, and yeah, that felt very real, they\u2019re both quite gay and that\u2019s a big, unspoken part of how their friendship works. McCarthy sells Lee and doesn\u2019t prettify her personality or try to win us over; Grant is just pure pleasure. His fluttery camp hand to his temple when he says, \u201cI\u2019m losing my hair\u201d! I swoon, I die. And their time period, that great drowned Atlantis of the 1990s, also feels very close and real. This is never played as a period piece, we don\u2019t get lots of reminders that We Are In The Nineties Now, but the concerns of that time\u2013specifically, the AIDS epidemic\u2013shadow the film. I\u2019m not sure anyone ever says the word. But it\u2019s why Jack is so alone (\u201cI\u2019ve no one to tell. All my friends are dead,\u201d he says in a matter-of-fact tone when Lee reveals her scheme, and nobody\u2019s surprised anymore), so ready for his loneliness to intertwine with Lee\u2019s. And it\u2019s part of why their \u201cqueer friendship\u201d feels so organic to its environment. The end titles tell us that Jack was cared for in his final illness\u2013I\u2019ll get the exact phrase wrong, I didn\u2019t think to write it down, but something like, \u201ccared for with love by members of Gay Men\u2019s Health Crisis.\u201d There are a lot of relationships here which the outside world tends to treat as last resorts\u2013your sketchy friend, your community charity group, your cat<\/em> for pity\u2019s sake\u2013and Can You Ever Forgive Me?<\/em> honors the love which animates all those bonds. (And honors that love, let me say, simply by portraying it, not by preaching at us about it the way I just did.)<\/p>\n

Are there any flaws? Ehhh the music composed for the film is fairly sentimental and generic. (The torch songs, by contrast, are well-chosen and haunting.) I loved Lee, I loved her friend, I loved her cat, I loved her movie.<\/p>\n

Typewriter photo via Wikimedia Commons. Post title via the Young Marble Giants<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody around her beyond the point where they\u2019re willing to help her get paid, is behind on her rent and living in depressive squalor. When illness threatens her only friend (a cat\u2026 no judgment) Lee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":12046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[32,31,57],"class_list":["post-12028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-gayer-than-a-picnic-basket","tag-god-bless-the-1990s-because-no-one-else-will","tag-sweet-smell-of-success"],"yoast_head":"\nCredit in the Straight World: I watch "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Credit in the Straight World: I watch "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-11T22:54:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-11T23:03:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/194\/2019\/01\/Royal_Typewriter_So\u0308derla\u030angvik_museum.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html\",\"name\":\"Credit in the Straight World: I watch \\\"Can You Ever Forgive Me?\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-11T22:54:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-11T23:03:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415\"},\"description\":\"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Credit in the Straight World: I watch “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/\",\"name\":\"Eve Tushnet\",\"description\":\"Conservatism reborn in twisted sisterhood\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415\",\"name\":\"Eve Tushnet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Eve Tushnet\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/author\/evetushnet\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Credit in the Straight World: I watch \"Can You Ever Forgive Me?\"","description":"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Credit in the Straight World: I watch \"Can You Ever Forgive Me?\"","og_description":"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html","og_site_name":"Eve Tushnet","article_published_time":"2019-01-11T22:54:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-11T23:03:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":672,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/194\/2019\/01\/Royal_Typewriter_So\u0308derla\u030angvik_museum.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Eve Tushnet","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eve Tushnet","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html","name":"Credit in the Straight World: I watch \"Can You Ever Forgive Me?\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-11T22:54:08+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-11T23:03:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415"},"description":"Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a straightforward rise-and-fall tale. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a once-successful writer who has alienated everybody","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/01\/credit-in-the-straight-world-i-watch-can-you-ever-forgive-me.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Credit in the Straight World: I watch “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/","name":"Eve Tushnet","description":"Conservatism reborn in twisted sisterhood","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415","name":"Eve Tushnet","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Eve Tushnet"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/author\/evetushnet"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}