Home Show Can You Ever Forgive Me

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This is number 439 for those of you playing the home game welcome.
My name is Rob.
I'm an executive producer of the Clubhouse Podcast and not a big autograph guy.
And we'll talk about that here in a minute.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode, thank God.
Sitting in the co-host chair is the newest member of the cast and a man that is kind of
an autograph person.
Between him and his lady they have quite a few.
He is Alex.
Welcome, sir.
Well we're more of a selective autograph peoples.
We're not just autographs for the same autographs but then we don't have more than I am.
Well that's like saying nothing.
That's fair.
And rounding out the dish is the lady of a house and there's only one autograph she wants
and Alex didn't get it for her on the cruise.
She is Jen Rome.
Welcome, friend.
Hello everyone.
She do it.
It's coming.
No, I didn't.
No.
They're talking about the villain Marty Scroll.
Whenever we do one of these it is to review something and this is no exception.
We're going to talk today about a film with Melissa McCarthy directed by Mary L. Heller.
It's called Can You Ever Forgive Me?
We want to send a shout out to Slifox.
Zinini.
Zinini.
Zinini.
Zinini.
Thanks to Jason.
Everybody over there for letting us see this or letting me see this film.
We love our vendors.
They let us see movies ahead of time so we can talk to you guys about them and give you
our honest opinions so you can spend your entertainment dollar properly.
So here's a chain to know.
This is based on a true story about an author named Lee Israel.
She was very big in the 70s and 80s writing biographies.
She did one on Catherine Hepburn.
She did one on Estee Lauder.
A lot going on for her except when it all comes to a screeching halt.
She is a, shall we say, not a pleasant individual?
With the same kind of snarkiness that a lot of characters that Melissa McCarthy plays.
So without the redeeming qualities.
Correct.
Okay.
So she's working on a biography of Fanny Bryce.
And she's having some writers block and her agent is not giving her a lot of help.
Her agent played by the great Jane Curtain.
Oh.
OGSNL.
Thank you very much.
And as she's doing research one day at the New York Public Library.
She's looking through a book on Fanny Bryce and something falls out the back of the book.
And what it turns out to be is a personal letter that Fanny wrote to somebody in an envelope.
Interesting.
So she goes to a bookstore and finds out that there's a market for these things.
Hmm.
So she sells it, gets a little money because she's behind on her rent.
Her cat is ill, so she's having to pay the vet bills for the cat and everything else.
So she decides that she's going to start forging letters from famous people that are deceased
to people and selling them.
No.
Is this the part that's a true story?
This is all a true story.
Okay.
I didn't know if it was just based on her book.
No, this is all based on a true story.
Based on her book.
I mean, she wrote a book about it.
And so she starts doing this deal and one day in a bar she runs into a guy by the name
of Jack Hawk, H-O-C-K, by the way, played by the great Richard E. Grant, and they strike
up a friendship and he ends up becoming her accomplice and then things get out of control
as things tend to do when you're doing things that are illegal.
Right.
This runs about an hour 45.
I've always been fascinating.
I talk about this in my written review currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
The world of autographing has always fascinated me because again, like I said at the top
of the show, I'm not a big autograph guy, but some of the prices that these things fetch
are insane.
And the concept of the certificate of authenticity as a couple of people in this room experienced
fairly recently, it's crazy what kind of business it is.
And this is on full display in this film.
Wow.
Good.
However, as I also said in my written review, if I could sum up my feelings in the
film for this film in one word, that word would be just a may, just a may, just a may,
like this.
Is it man because of the material because of the delivery or the story and a yes, for
those of you wondering, yes, her husband is in it.
He was actually attached before she was.
He plays a dealer of nefarious means, which basically could be borderline describing every
character he's ever played.
But my thing with this film is like, there's no way you can make Lee Israel a sympathetic
character because she knows what she's doing is wrong and she's just, she's a horrible
person to begin with.
So there was nothing I could, there was nothing for me to root for here.
It was just, I'm just waiting for you to get caught more than anything.
Maybe that's what you're supposed to root for.
Or do they try to hard?
I don't know.
It just, it didn't do it.
For me, it didn't go anywhere.
I was very whatever about this film.
And it drags in certain places for me.
I would have been more interested if they went into more the FBI side of it.
Because once the FBI gets involved, I feel like it rushes itself a lot.
Now granted, it's based on her book.
So she wouldn't have known.
But I think if you could have taken some elements from whatever's documented from that FBI
case, that maybe you could have had something more out of this.
But it just, it never went anywhere for me.
I was like, okay, I think we all see where this is going.
Where is the chase and how can I cut to it?
And I think when we're in quarter four, which is the awards push, right?
This might have been better served as a Q2 movie.
Because and Hunter agrees with me because he's a good boy.
But I just, I really hope that this wasn't meant to be a vehicle for award season for her
because it's just not.
I never, there was never a point where she disappeared into the character for me.
There was never a point where I didn't go, Muslim McCarthy's played this kind of person
a hundred times before with better success.
I mean, Richard he grant big fan anyway and he's, he is on full display here.
So he is over the top girls.
Oh, absolutely.
Okay.
There's, there's certain parts of it where you feel kind of bad for him, but not really.
It's one of those words like you realize he's not the brains, but he, but he can't, but
the problem is his character can't get out of his own way.
And it's like you, okay, I could see this plan working, but the problem was you got too
greedy and then things got out of control.
And there's some subplots here that I felt were not necessary other than to tell you
more about who she was as a person that I don't think had any consequence to the overall
film.
Do you feel like they were desperate please to see her as human?
I think they might have been pleased to appeal to a certain demographic given both of their
extracurricular activities.
Certain magazines being subscribed to, oh, no, no, I think I caught up to you.
I was just let it get go, but it's not done in a way.
It's even hard for me to say like, it's not done in a way that adds anything to the story.
It's just, oh yeah, this is a thing by the way moving on.
It's just like, why?
I hate it when they do that.
Why?
It just, it didn't add anything to the story, but by the same token, I think if you had left
that element out of it, there might have been an uproar from those close to her that would
have said, hey, you forgot this part of it.
So I think it was more service to cover that and move on, which I didn't think was necessary
to what we were trying to, we were getting to.
And that was what this woman was doing.
Right.
And how this other, this man fit into her life and she didn't always quite trust him,
but she trusted him enough and then the wheels start to fall off.
It's just, I don't know.
Do you think they were trying to create any sympathy for her?
If they were, it wasn't very good at it, because I was just like, can we, can we get to
the point where she gets busted, please?
Wow.
I mean, I, I really was.
I was like, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Because I was interested by the trailer.
I was like, okay, this looks like it could be a thing.
But I was more interested in the thriller part of it, which really never materialized.
Then the, this is what she did.
Like, they, they also spent a lot of, a lot more time and not a lot of time, but a lot
more time than they should have showing how she did it.
Because like for each individual, I mean, she, I mean, she did, it was an elaborate plan.
Don't get me wrong.
For each individual celebrity, she was forging.
She bought a separate typewriter that would have matched with a typewriter from that time.
And then she would go and find, because this is 1991, forgot to mention that.
So the internet's not a thing.
So she would find a book where that person had put in their signature on it and she would
put it on top of her TV with the rice paper on top of that so she could trace the signature.
But it, there's just, it just, it fell flat for me.
I got a good question for you.
Yes, sir.
So it doesn't sound like it worked that great as a movie.
Let me pause at this.
Do you think that at any point this might have made a better like six episode mini series
arc where you have like one episode, her starting out, second episode, the FBI's point of
you, third episode, whether she's getting more in depth to it, fourth episode, the FBI's
getting closer and something like that.
I would have rather seen a documentary, be honest.
Okay.
Do you think the book might be worth reading?
Maybe.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Well, there's the distinct possibilities since she wrote the book herself that it's kind
of self-serving.
That's very possible.
And I just, I just don't know that this movie interested me enough to want to read the
book.
Okay.
It's just, and it hurts me to say that, but I'm not going to, you know, candy coat things.
This is my opinion.
Yeah.
That's why we listen to you as they like they say on a local sports station.
Not that great, buddy.
You know, I just, and it hurt, I guess it hurts me to say that because I love most of
McCarthy.
I love Richard.
Right.
I love to people involved in this film.
I just got a big back in nothing.
Do you think they were just limited by what they were provided to work with?
It's possible.
You know, too many controlling opinions involved.
But the other idea is, I don't know because it has a cloud now to do what she wants.
Well, let me, let me just address Jen's question because I don't know what happened to
my other days.
Minor spoiler alert in.
Three, two, one.
She's passed away.
Okay.
So I don't know.
And from the way she's portrayed, there's not a lot going on from her from a family standpoint.
So I don't know if there were any controlling interests that would have any input, I guess.
Alex, you were saying I was just thinking more on the lines of Melissa McCarthy has enough
cloud and enough, as you would say, skins in the game.
Okay.
She could pick and choose what she wants to do for the most part.
So this, she definitely wanted to do on some.
Yeah.
Or have like a, a, a project for her.
Well, but the other thing is, is Ben Falcone, her husband, was involved in the movie before
she was.
And he actually suggested her for the movie.
So I wonder if it's more along the lines of him asking her to do it, like it might get
more release or something like that.
It could be, Julian Moore was originally attached in early development, but she, she
removed herself from creative differences.
So she finally read the script could be, I think that's all I got.
So I just get to the final analysis, we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going
to give you thumbs up, thumbs down, letter grades, numbers, typewriters, anything like that.
Two questions are involved in this question number one is, would I see this film again?
If the answers know, then we're done here.
If the answer is yes, then the, then the follow up question is, how far would I be willing
to go to do so?
From the best of the best of the worst of the best here is how we do it.
People priced at a theater down to a twilight or an early bird show, because apparently we've
had some confusion with that from before, I want to mention any names, but as initials
are Alex Barnhill, it is fair.
Down to a matinee showing, down to early morning on a weekend, down to second run at the dollar
theater, down to actually leaving my house to get it from net, rough red box, down the
streaming on Netflix, down to watching it on TV.
So Rob?
Yes, sir.
Can you see this again?
I can't say no, why?
But I also can't say yes.
If my wife and I were sitting at home and it came up in the queue and she was like, I think
I want to watch this, I wouldn't leave the room, but I wouldn't go out of my way to
see it again.
Would it depend which room?
No.
Okay.
Because I can watch a movie anywhere.
True.
And if I'm getting to spend time in the lovely and talented Mrs. Irvin, I really don't
care where I am.
That is fair.
That's a very true statement.
So there you go.
It is Mary L. Heller's, what was the follow-up?
So you're saying it would be Netflix?
At the best.
At best.
Okay.
It's called Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Thank you everybody.
It's Sly Fox.
Ziningy.
Ziningy.
Ziningy.
Ziningy.
I promise my voice is going to come back soon.
We love our vendors.
Jason, everybody over there.
They take care of us.
They let us see movies in advance so we can talk to you guys about them and give you our
honest opinions.
Let me inside.
Let's do the plugs.
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ERVIN.
My normal co-host for this show is Chad Womack.
You can follow him at ChadNPG69.
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Remember the Instagram has an underscore after that.
There's going to be some fun coming in the next week or so.
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The official fact check of this show is Don Ford.
You can follow him at Igboonu, IG-B-U-N-U-U-U-U.
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You can also email him for information how we can come to a live show.
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obligated to say that.
So until next time, for Jen Rome, for Alex, for the Empire and me, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is still closed.
I just pushed the button too early.