j* Movie Reviews 2019

Can You Ever Forgive Me (2019)

This does a really lovely job of exploring literary self-loathing.

It's not usually considered a filmic story, but this is a tale of a down-and-out middle-aged author, her writer's block, her agent's block, her cat's block and her general life blockages. It was quite interesting watching this all unfold as she was sucked away from her own voice (if it ever existed) and into the world of writing literally as other more famous authors in forged letters.

It demonstrates a range of literary wankers and the tightness of literary circles. And don't get me wrong, our anti-heroic outcast is hard work, but she is an outsider, doing work not recognised as "proper" in writerly groups. And then, in her own way, she gets to pull their bluffs by writing perfectly as those more famous than them. But it doesn't win her back her agent or her ex-lover, even if it does win her a friendship with Richard E Grant and a lot of alcohol. It's interesting to see the cult-of-culture explored in this way, from the bookshop letter dealers all the way up.

So it's a pretty grim story, but told well with moments of lightness.

J* gives it 3 stars.