CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018)

Written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty


Directed by Marielle Heller


Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA.  October 21, 2018  5:45 PM


The title of Marielle Heller's brilliantly witty and superbly acted biographical drama, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" comes from an apology letter that Lee Israel invented that was supposed to have been written by Dorothy Parker. This is also the title of Israel's memoir that covers her time as a once successful New York writer of books on high-profile women before falling on hard times and getting involved in a scam of selling forged letters by deceased writers and actors that she actually wrote.

Melissa McCarthy impressively delivers the best screen performance of her career as the dour Israel that utilizes her incredible gift of comedy with a lesser-seen-but-equally-great dramatic ability. The film also gives veteran British actor, Richard E. Grant a terrific opportunity to shine in the role of Israel's dubious friend and eventual partner-in-crime.

When we first meet Israel (McCarthy), she has just been fired from a copy-editing job for drinking while at work and cursing out a co-worker. This only adds to her mounting financial problems. Lee is now definitely unable to pay her overdue rent and her beloved, twelve-year old cat (whose company she greatly prefers over anyone human) is sick but can't take to the vet until she covers at least part of an outstanding bill.

Lee finally gets a meeting with her book agent, Marjorie (an excellent Jane Curtin), who had been avoiding her, and insists that she get her an advance for a book she wants to write about stage-star, Fanny Brice. But Marjorie has to set her straight that nobody wants to read that book let alone pay her a dime to write it.

Drowning her frustrations at a local gay bar, Lee is seized upon by Jack Hock (Grant), an exuberant English dandy who claims to have met her at a party. After finally remembering him (and the appalling act he committed in a highly inebriated state), the two bond, spending the evening conversing and carousing through the city.

While at the New York library continuing to do research for her book, Lee stumbles upon a letter written by Fanny Brice and decides to steal it. She takes the letter to a book dealer, owned by a sweet and flirtatious, Anna (Dolly Wells), in order to sell. Anna purchases the letter for a decent sum but informs Lee that she might have gotten more if it had contained more interesting subject matter. This inspires Lee to invent correspondence from noted figures like Noël Coward and Parker yet with intriguing content. So begins Israel on an elaborate crime spree of composing hundreds of fake letters where she is able to express herself creatively while comfortably make a nice living. However, it doesn't take long for someone to become suspicious of her activities and gets the F.B.I. involved to investigate.

Julianne Moore was initially cast as Lee Israel before later dropping out of this project. And while I think she's an amazing and capable actress, Ms Moore was definitely miscast. After seeing Ms McCartney's exceptional portrayal of the criminal writer, I can't imagine anyone else in this role. Grumpy, ill-tempered and self-involved, Israel would not be considered much of a sympathetic protagonist. Yet we can still understand her outrage and resentment of being dismissed as a writer with McCarthy subtly revealing her rarely seen vulnerable and insecure side. As she struggles mostly in isolation and lost in a drunken haze, Israel has become oblivious to the filth and cat shit surrounding her in the tiny apartment.

Lighter in spirit yet still dark in soul, Mr. Grant's Hock is the perfect foil to McCarthy's acerbic Israel. The actor has been around for a while, reliably delivering solid supporting work in many films and with "Can You Ever Forgive Me?",  Mr. Grant been given an excellent opportunity to remind people just how really good he can be. But the most delightful surprise is the brief yet highly effective appearance of Ms. Curtin, who is best remembered as one of the original cast members of the long-running, comedy sketch series, "Saturday Night Live". She brings an astute sharp tongue to her part as Israel's agent and holds her own against her formidable client.

Ms Heller began her career as an actress, mostly appearing in supporting roles in films and television before deciding to venture behind the camera. Her first feature, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl", which she adapted from a graphic novel, tells the story of a curious fifteen year girl exploring her sexuality before ending up in an unfortunate affair with her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend. This was one of my favorite films of 2015 and what I admired most is how Ms Heller impressively displayed a craft and vision that was fully formed as a filmmaker. With "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", the director has managed to have become even more deft and confident, further exploring the merging of dark, mournful drama with surprising bursts of laugh-out-loud humor.

With a winning script by playwright, Jeffrey Whitty and filmmaker, Nicole Holofcener (who was attached to direct in the early stages of development), "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is a remarkable achievement of heartfelt drama and wicked comedy anchored by stand-out, award-worthy performances by Ms McCarthy and Mr. Grant. And Ms Heller proves to be a singular artist who is more than capable of bridging indie-minded cinema with mainstream appeal.

COMING SOON

"Destroyer" is a gritty crime-drama from director, Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight", "The Invitation") and stars the gifted Oscar-winner, Nicole Kidman like you've never seen her before.

The teaser trailer doesn't reveal much of the story but we have Kidman, appearing weathered and haunted, as a LAPD detective who had once gone deep undercover as a young cop to infiltrate a gang in the California desert. The results didn't end well. But now years later, the leader of the gang has resurfaced and she must get back in as an attempt to make peace with her tragic past.

The film looks riveting and promises to feature another bravura performance from one of my favorite actresses. "Destroyer" won't reach theaters until December but if you live in Los Angeles, you might have a chance to see the film a little earlier. It has been selected to be screened during the 2018 AFI Film Fest on November 13th as part of an evening tribute to Ms Kidman with additional info of the event to come.

"Destroyer" is due in U.S. theaters on December 25, 2018

A STAR IS BORN (2018)

Written by Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters



Directed by Bradley Cooper



Where & When: Vista Theater, Hollywood, CA. October 7, 2018 8:45 PM



In 1937, "A Star Is Born" was first made about a North Dakota farm girl, Esther Blodgett (played by Janet Gaynor) who dreams of coming to Hollywood to become a famous actress. She struggles until she meets Norman Maine (Fredric March), a popular movie star and one of her favorite actors. They fall in love and with his help, Esther gets a new name ("Vicki Lester"), a screen test and a role in a movie that makes her an overnight success. While her career is on the rise, Norman is now struggling due to his increased drinking problem. This movie became a classic love story set in show-business and has been previously remade as a musical in 1954 (with Judy Garland and James Mason) and 1976 (with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson).

Bradley Cooper co-stars and makes his directorial debut with the latest version of "A Star Is Born" and has pop superstar, Lady Gaga making her feature film acting debut. Cooper knows he can’t draw too far outside the lines of the basic plot but also realizes he has to plant this romance firmly in to the present. He mostly succeeds by keeping the film grounded with moments that are delightful and believable, stirring original music and with Gaga who clearly uses her early experiences as a young singer trying to make it in the business to help shape her spirited performance.

Set in the world of country music, Jackson Maine (Cooper) is one of the hottest acts right now. After a LA gig, Jackson is in the need of adult refreshment and has his driver stop at a local bar. It turns out to be a show place for female drag performers but since they serve liquor, Jackson is perfectly content. He becomes mesmerized when Ally (Gaga), an actual female, hits the stage and performs a live rendition of Edith Piaf’s "La Vie En Rose". Moved by her voice and talent, Jackson wants to meet her. And while well aware of who is he, Ally is not particularly impressed, dismissing him as some overindulged performer. However, after spending most of the night hanging out, talking and sharing with him a song she wrote, Ally begins to see him as a more generous, down-to-earth guy.

Jackson invites Ally to his next concert and while very attracted to him, she's also wary as he might have a serious problem with alcohol. Ally reluctantly agrees to go, leaving behind her waitress job, with the eager encouragement of her father (Andrew Dice Clay) and close friend, Ramon (Anthony Ramos) who gets to tag along. They are whisked off in a private jet and given backstage passes to see the show. When Jackson sees her, he wants Ally to come out on stage to sing one of her songs. Initially terrified by the idea, Ally eventually decides to take a chance with the crowd, and later social media, embracing her. She hits the road with Jackson, playing with the band and honing her craft until love blossoms between them and eventually marriage.

Rez (Rafi Gavron), a record producer, moves in on Ally to convince her to let him manage her career. He begins to mold her in to a pop singer like Britney Spears and uh, Lady Gaga. As Ally achieves success, Jackson sinks lower in to the depths of his addiction. His destructive behavior comes to a head at the Grammy Awards where he is almost too drunk to play during a Roy Orbison tribute and, after Ally wins the Best New Artist prize, Jackson not only embarrasses his still loving yet exasperated wife during her acceptance speech but completely humiliates himself at the same time.

"A Star Is Born" begins well enough with Jackson and Ally forging a heartfelt connection through music and witnessing this attractive couple drift from a professional to a personal relationship. This set-up is charming and enjoyable with our two leads having a lovely chemistry but once we reach the point when the dynamic of their union begins to shift, the movie starts to fall in to more routine and predictable territory.

As a filmmaker, Mr. Cooper is more in line with some of the more idiosyncratic directors he has worked with as an actor like David O. Russell, Derek Cianfrance and Clint Eastwood. With "A Star Is Born, he has managed to make a somber character-study drama that still offers a crowd-pleasing love story at it's core. The film is briskly paced, despite it's 135 minute running time, and bathed in warm, earthy tones thanks to the alluring work of cinematographer, Matthew Libatique. And while this is an admirable achievement, Mr. Cooper doesn't yet display a distinctive style as a filmmaker but I'm sure he will have another opportunity to work on his personal stamp.

Gaga made her major acting debut in the fifth season of "American Horror Story: Hotel" and unexpectedly won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. While her performance here would not be considered much of a stretch, she does bring charisma and warmth to her role of an aspiring singer. As far as her ranking amongst other musicians-turned-actors, I would say Gaga is closer to Mary J. Blige in her Oscar-nominated turn in "Mudbound" than Madonna in pretty much any movie she’s ever done.

As for Mr. Cooper, he plays Jackson as a good-natured addict with an easy swagger and sexy deep voice that recalls Sam Elliott, who just happens to appear as Jackson's brother and manager, Bobby. These brothers have a strained relationship that was made complicated during childhood because of their alcoholic father. Cooper's performance is far more effective in the later half of the film, revealing a vulnerability after he has left rehab and begun the difficult and painful process of asking the people in his life for forgiveness.

The 2018 version of "A Star Is Born" barely differs from the previous glitzy incarnations with the most obvious difference being the period clothing and dated attitudes. And that’s perfectly fine. Refreshed and contemporary, this is an enjoyable romantic-drama filled with passionate desire, sensual energy and thrilling music. In this era where anyone can achieve star-like qualities with the right connections and an incredible amount of luck, Mr. Cooper has made a pleasurable fantasy that will appeal to a new generation of film-goers.

HAL (2018)

Directed by Amy Scott



Where & When: Nuart Theatre, West Los Angeles, CA. September 19, 2018 7:30 PM



The name Hal Ashby may not mean much to many people today but if you’ve seen "Shampoo", "Harold and Maude", "The Last Detail" or "Being There", then you are more familiar with him than you might think. This brilliant uncompromising filmmaker is the subject of "Hal", a documentary by Amy Scott, which examines his part in the New Hollywood revolution of the 1970’s, an era that completely overhauled the types of American movies that were being made.

These young, experimental filmmakers (like Scorsese, Malick, Coppola and DePalma to name just a few) abandoned the glossy, artificial style that had best defined Hollywood films, shifting towards gritty realism, location shooting and oblique narrative structures to tell their stories. Many of these films involved adult themes that featured drug use, course language, graphic violence and nudity. The work of Mr. Ashby pushed the limits of cinema, focusing on challenging and controversial subject-matter like race relations, intergenerational romance, sexual politics and the struggles of Vietnam War veterans, and while most of these were dark comedies, they still concerned many of the studios he worked with. But audiences responded to his films, sometimes quite favorably, other times with indifference, and they have remained timely and have greatly influenced the next generation of filmmakers.

Born in Utah and raised in a Mormon household, Ashby's childhood was filled with difficult emotional trauma and he did not embrace the religion. After making his way to Los Angeles not long after the demise of his first marriage, he quickly takes to the hippie scene of the time. Ashby stumbled in to Hollywood film editing, assisting while learning the craft until he edited his first feature on his own, the 1965 comedy, "The Loved One".

He met Norman Jewison, a rising director at the time, and they bonded, becoming life-long friends. He hired Ashby to edit his 1966 film, "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" and went on to receive his first Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing. These buddies teamed up again for "In The Heat of The Night", a drama about a black police detective (played by Sidney Poitier) who travels to a small Mississippi town to investigate a murder. The film became a box-office smash and went on to win five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Film Editing for Ashby.

Feeling like he was more than ready, Jewison encouraged Ashby to get behind the camera. His debut feature was "The Landlord", an offbeat comedy about racial tension due to gentrification in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The film was not a major success but received plenty of critical acclaim and earned co-star, Lee Grant an Oscar nomination. This was an auspicious start for Ashby and helped emboldened him as a filmmaker.

Ms Scott has not only assembled some of the people who worked with Mr Ashby (which includes Mr. Jewison, Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Jeff and Beau Bridges and Ms Grant, who won an Oscar for her role in "Shampoo") to share their experiences but she has a few modern filmmakers with indie roots like David O. Russell, Lisa Cholodenko, Allison Anders and Alexander Payne to discuss how his films helped shape and influence their own work.

Since his method of creating cinema was all consuming for Ashby that meant that the people in his personal life suffered in the process. He was married five times and had many girlfriends in between yet his rascally charm made them enjoy their time with him until they realized that his true and complete devotion was to his films.

Much of his film output by the 1980’s became more unfocused and far less memorable. Ashby would shoot an excessive amount of footage and relied heavily on improv. Some say that his increased drug usage was the cause while others dismissed this idea and attributed his behavior to his resistance to the increased studio interference of his creative vision.

Ashby was supposed to direct “Tootsie” (and we see early test footage with Dustin Hoffman) but because he refused to complete post-production on "Lookin' To Get Out" after the studio took control of the 1982 film, he was taken off the project. It’s curious to imagine what Ashby’s version of "Tootsie" would have ended up like yet I’m certain this comedy about a difficult male actor pretending to be a woman to get work would not have not been as safe and feel-good under his direction (with no offense to the film's ultimate director, Sydney Pollack).

Candid and insightful, "Hal" brings in to focus a ballsy artist who had something to say with his films and was unafraid to make his provocative ideas known. Mr. Ashby's work may have had themes that were boldly political and socially conscious yet he also managed to entertain. He was the type of maverick filmmaker that really doesn't exist anymore and that is truly a shame.

WINNERS OF THE 2018 LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

"This Teacher", a film by Mark Jackson that tells the story of a young Arab woman who comes to New York City to visit a friend before venturing upstate on a meditative journey, received the U.S. Fiction Award at this year's Los Angeles Film Festival. The Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film went to "Brian Banks", Tom Shadyac's fact-based account of a young football player’s dream to play for the NFL is tragically ended after he's falsely accused of rape and sent to prison. And "Border", about a Swiss border agent with the unique ability to smell emotions, won the World Fiction Award. This film had received the Un Certain Regard Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival and now has been selected as Sweden’s official entry into Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film race.

Here is the complete list of winners at the 2018 Los Angeles Film Festival:

U.S. Fiction Award: "This Teacher"

U.S. Fiction (Special Mention): "In Reality"



World Fiction Award: "Border" (Sweden)



World Fiction Special Jury Prize, Directing: Soudade Kaadan, "The Day I Lost My Shadow" (France/Lebanon/Qatar/Syrian Arab Republic)

Documentary Award: "hillbilly"(USA)

Documentary Special Jury Award for Excellence in Social Justice Storytelling: "False Confessions" (Denmark)

LA Muse Award: "Staycation" (USA)

LA Muse Documentary Award: "Fire on the Hill" (USA)



LA Muse Special Mention, Best Ensemble Cast: "Solace" (USA)



Nightfall Award: "The Dead Center" (USA)



Nightfall Special Jury Prize, Lead Actor: Ashleigh Morghan, "Head Count" (USA)



Nightfall Special Jury Prize, Ensemble Cast: "Spell"



Award for Short Fiction: "The Passage" (USA)

Award for Documentary Short: "One Leg In, One Leg Out"(Canada)

Web Episodes Jury Award: "Psusy"(New Zealand)

Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film: "Brian Banks" (USA)

Audience Award for Documentary Feature Film: "Stuntman" (USA)

Audience Award for Music Video: "Clutch" (USA)

Audience Award for Short Film: "Weekends"(USA)

Audience Award for Episodic Story: "Revenge Tour"(USA)

Audience Award for Episodic Pilot: "40 & Single"(Ghana)

Seattle Story Award: "I’m Sorry Happy Birthday"