No. 1 (2018) Can You Ever Forgive Me. Jan 3rd.

Film No 1 (2018) Jan. 3rd.  10:50 PM  LUNA PALACE Leederville . 

"Nobody is going to pay for the writer Lee Israel right now. My suggestion is, you go out there and find another way to make a living". (Marjorie, Israel's agent, lays bare the reality of life for Lee).

This is an engaging story and surprisingly so. Not because the story lacks merit, it's a fascinating tale. It is more that our two key characters are so unlikeable. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) and Jack Hock (Richard E Grant) play a pair of fraudsters in a re-enactment of Israel's confessional autobiography of the same name. We meet Israel in the early 90's, she's an alcohol dependent author, down on her luck. By accident she discovers a letter from 20's star Fanny Brice during research for a book she hopes to write. Local book dealer Anna (Dolly Wells) buys the letter and the seed for fraudulent behaviour to help make ends meet is planted. The ultimate odd couple, Hock and Israel, steer the story as a pair of losers. McCarthy and Grant are brilliantly detestable. 9GUMS.