Tag: writing

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE – Review

We’re still officially a couple of months away from the big Summer movie season, so it’s interesting that one of its staples, the animated feature film, is having quite a successful 2026 (at least the first quarter). After the sports-themed smash from Sony, GOAT, Pixar is scoring (another sports term) big with HOPPERS. It’s still in the top five, a win (again) after their last few original (non-sequel) projects have fizzled. So, now let’s turn to a subject more familiar to the “art house”. Those mentioned flicks are in the usual cartoon genre of slapstick “funny animal” comedy. This week’s wide (select theatres, for sure) is in the “biopic” genre, a nonfiction animated film. It’s not a first as FLEE garnered three Oscar noms five years ago, and 2007’s PERSEPOLIS was a critical hit. Ah, but here’s a twist: the focus here is on a moviemaker, a writer-turned-director. And though he had his struggles, you will probably agree that this man lived A MAGNIFICENT LIFE.

The man in question is French stage and screen icon Marcel Pagnol. We first meet him close to the end of his career, when he “fell out of fashion” in the early 1960s. His latest play isn’t “putting butts in the seats”. After a party, he goes to his opulent home to “tinker” with another of his “perpetual motion machines”. His work is interrupted by the maid, who informs him that a messenger has arrived to pick up his autobiographical piece for a publisher. Ah, he sees that the carrier’s bike needs fixing, so he sends down some tools to “stall” him. Luckily, Marcel’s “muse” finally appears, a “memory-ghost” of himself as a boy of nine or ten. The lad guides him through his life, growing up near Marseille, clashing with his papa over a career pursuit while adoring his mother, who is taken from him far too soon. Eventually, Marcel teaches Latin at the local grade school, but he yearns to be a writer for the stage. After marrying, he and his new bride are swept up by the delights of Paris, where Marcel tries to get his work into a theatre. After returning to teaching, he’s given a chance, though his marriage crumbles. Eventually, Marcel is tapped by the budding local film industry and soon becomes a director and a studio head, opening a facility near his hometown. Over the years, he bonds with the famed actor Raimu, deals with the Nazi invasion in WWII, and begins a new romance with a lovely young actress. The memories fuel his pen, but can Marcel finish his tome before the delivery boy rings the doorbell to collect this rushed memoir?

It’s truly appropriate that the story of this wonderful artist is told by another wonderful artist, master filmmaker Sylvain Chomet. He adapted Pangol’s memoirs for this engaging screenplay. It’s another aspect of his considerable talents, displayed in this, his third animated feature film after the Oscar-nominated gems, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (so delightful) and THE ILLUSIONIST (almost a comedy from the silent era). Let’s hope this isn’t the final entry in a “trilogy”, as he is one of the best artisans continuing the glories of classical 2D “line-drawn” feature-length animation. Yes, there’s some stunning work in CGI out there, but it’s refreshing to see these detailed line renderings brought to swirling life. Chomet evokes the history of historical caricature in his interpretation of these giants of French cinema, in front of and behind the camera. There’s even a touch of puppetry, as the heads are slightly out of proportion to the bodies, much like marionettes. This captures the emotions, since there’s not the manic action of most animation (a criticism from some), but the superb physical acting, especially the gestures and body language, really immerses us in the Pangol legacy. And yes, there’s a bit of computer tweaking with props and backdrops, and a couple of funny animals (who look and behave like, well, animals), but this stretches and expands the medium. Chomet also evokes the era by bringing the Art Deco-style magazine imagery of the 1920’s. And, there’s also the clever use of the real live-action footage when we see Pangol’s work on a movie screen or an editing device. Kudos also to the excellent vocal performances, led by Laurent Laffite as the adult Marcel. In short, Chomet and his army of artisans create a magnificent and moving tapestry of A MAGNIFICENT LIFE. Or should I be brief and just say “Magnifique”?


4 Out of 4

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE is now playing in select theatres

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? – Review

Melissa McCarthy as “Lee Israel” and Richard E. Grant as “Jack Hock” in the film CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? Photo by Mary Cybulski. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

In CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, Melissa McCarthy gives a stunning dramatic performance in the strange but true story of Lee Israel, an one-time bestselling author of celebrity biographies fallen on hard times, who turns to a life of crime forging letters from famous literary figures such as Dorothy Parker, which she sells to collectors with the help of a boozy friend, played wonderfully by Richard E. Grant.

Lee Israel (McCarthy) is a New Yorker who has made a career out of writing biographies of celebrities such Katherine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead. As interest in the celebrities of that earlier time, the one’s Lee prefers as subjects, fades in the 1980s, she struggles to get published and make a living. Lee’s anti-social, brusque personality and heavy-drinking don’t help matters either. When her new project, a biography of Fanny Brice, fails to find a publisher, she is desperate. To stave off eviction, and to cover vet bills for her beloved elderly cat, Lee turns to embellishing or even forging letters from famous writers such as Dorothy Parker and selling them to collectors. Suddenly, she discovers she has a gift for mimicking the style of these literary greats.

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? is filled with wonderful performances, memorable characters, and a story that is by turns outrageous, sad, funny, and surprising.

McCarthy has built her career on comedies since BRIDESMAIDS, with only a few forays into drama. Frankly, I don’t care much for McCarthy’s comedies generally but she is amazing in this dramatic role, and it is such a strange true story. McCarthy makes this prickly, unpleasant character, who is talented but self-destructive, into someone you care about anyway. Her scenes with Grant are wonderful, spiked with sarcastic humor and the kind of alcohol-fueled bad behavior that makes for a good yarn.

McCarthy and Grant have a terrific chemistry together that makes their scenes enormously enjoyable. Both are deserving of praise. But McCarthy carries to bulk of this film and her work is striking. While she has done a few other dramatic film roles, notably in ST. VINCENT with Bill Murray, this one may be a game changer for McCarthy, and a performance certain to spark talk of Oscar.

Whether Lee Israel’s fall was due primarily to alcoholism, changing popular tastes, a refusal to adapt to the marketplace, or just her own prickly personality is debatable but clearly she was a poster child for being one’s own worst enemy. With no other skill than writing and a knack for imitating the style of the great writers she admired, Israel embarked on a criminal endeavor that was both audacious and lucrative.

Movie promotional materials describe Israel as a cat lover but it is really only the one cat she cares about (and we later learn the reason for that). an elderly ailing black-and-white cat with litter-box issues..Still, her concern for this animal shows a warmth and responsible side of her not evident in most of her life.

Israel says she prefers cats to people but she clearly prefers whiskey and soda to everything else. With an disdain for all and a urge to insult, Israel makes enemies where ever she goes. McCarthy effectively conveys Israel’s anti-social personality in an early scene, when the author arrives at a party and immediately berates the hostess (her agent, played well by Jane Curtin), and then going on to be rude to everyone else in reach. Although Lee sometimes is attracted to other women, relationships are just too much work for her. There is one exception to her solitary curmudgeonly life, her friend Jack (played with great barfly charm by Richard E. Grant), another hard-drinking soul who shares her caustic wit. and eventually becomes her partner in crime.

There is nothing cuddly about this cactus of a person yet McCarthy draws us into her story and finds the human side under the hard crusty shell. Director Marielle Heller and scriptwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty build an engrossing tale of someone falling into crime one step at a time, as well as a portrait of a talented person whose own flaws sabotage her.

Aided by a perfect score that features Billy Holiday and Lou Reed, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? is by turns ironically funny and tragically sad. It makes for an intriguing, sometime jaw-dropping wild trip, topped by what is easily the best performance that McCarthy has ever given.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars