Once her lies start catching up with her, Lee turns to her homosexual drinking buddy Jack Hock (Richard E.

She then chances upon the idea to fabricate personal letters written by past playwrights and actors, in turn selling these forgeries as authentic items. McCarthy stars as Israel, whose successful career as an author has hit the skids. Melissa McCarthy delivers one of last year’s most fearless performances in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, an adaptation of Lee Israel’s same-named memoir.

Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Photo: Fox)ĬAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018). If the actor playing record producer Bert Kaempfert looks familiar, that’s because it’s Wolf Kahler, best known for portraying one of the nasty Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.īlu-ray extras include audio commentary by Hart, Dorff and Softley a vintage making-of featurette deleted scenes an interview with Hart and Softley and an interview with Kirchherr. Yet despite some meandering moments, this remains a unique experience, since viewers know every step of the way what fate has in store for these eventual pop icons. Backbeat isn’t a complete success, since the leading character of Sutcliffe often proves to be the least interesting. Directed in a laid-back fashion by Iain Softley, Backbeat focuses primarily on the friendship between Sutcliffe and Lennon (a great turn by Ian Hart), and it’s a credit to the film that, with just a few broad strokes, it makes clear that Lennon’s creative soulmate was McCartney (Gary Bakewell) rather than his art-school pal. A talented painter but something of a washout as a musician, Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) finds his attention captured by German photographer Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer) even as most of his bandmates take their first tentative steps toward stardom. This, then, is a look at the early days of The Beatles, when its members numbered John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Lennon’s best friend Stuart Sutcliffe. It’s 1960, and a young band stands poised to rewrite music history. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) Ian Hart and Stephen Dorff in Backbeat (Photo: Shout! Factory)īACKBEAT (1994). (View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray and DVD. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born (Photo: Warner Bros.)

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