Liars and Saints

  This season of "SVU" has not been flawless, but it has mostly been delightful. Then April 23 happened. Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy plays Jesmyn Jewell, a star on the ultimate fighter circuit. I'm pretty sure that most--if not all--of McCarthy's lines are improvised. (She is channeling her "Bridesmaids" character.) Famously, on "The Simpsons," the yard work sequence from "Cape Feare" made the cut only because the writers needed one full minute of padding. I believe we're seeing something like that in the McCarthy scene from "SVU." Jewell immediately falls in love with Olivia Benson (who just wants some simple information). Jewell keeps derailing the conversation to talk about Benson's "yams," her "baby browns," her talent for "being spicey." Jewell wants cash--but if cash is unavailable, "some other arrangement" could be designed. The scene would not work if Mariska Hargitay st...

 One of my favorite movies is "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" A part of me can't believe the funding actually materialized. This is a story of a gay woman, no longer young, who has stopped taking care of herself. (It's not clear that she ever really gave serious thought to hygiene.) The woman is in no way heroic; in fact, she is a criminal. The crime seems to be in a low-stakes category; no buildings explode; no one is murdered. The woman, Lee Israel, just begins falsely attributing letters (fake letters) to Dorothy Parker. Lee Israel is an obviously gifted writer. She imagines Dorothy recovering from a bad party: "I sense I had too much to drink. Can you ever forgive me? I think, to save time, I might just print out new calling cards, and pass them out at the start of every meeting. And the cards will say:  Can you ever forgive me ?" Israel also writes from the voice of Fanny Brice. "I'm worried I have passed on my nose to my child. Should I add a *nose...

By far the high-point of the Oscars was Melissa McCarthy's brief appearance. If you have been living on Mars, know that: MM wore Olivia Colman's costume from "The Favourite." On her absurdly long train, sixteen or seventeen stuffed bunnies appeared. Also, one stuffed bunny was attached to McCarthy's hand, so that she could make it "come alive" while she talked. How tedious it is to write about "why something is funny," but still I have to point out that McCarthy's short appearance: (1) paid surprising and unusual tribute to one of the iconic characters from the past year, (2) sliced through the fatuous self-importance of the Oscars in a wordless and elegant way, and (3) made McCarthy into the evening's court jester, which is always an appealing character, from the p.o.v. of the audience. (It seemed perfect that the recipient of the award McCarthy was presenting couldn't be bothered to make even one remark about McCa...

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" shines so brightly in part because it's a Nicole Holofcener movie. It has Holofcener in its DNA. (She co-wrote the script). Holofcener has made her name by noticing things no one else notices. (She's like Jerry Seinfeld, who recently struck comic gold by musing aloud about a raisin.) Tiny, indelible moments are sprinkled through Holofcener's scripts. A man stands before a wall of multicolored towels at Bed, Bath, and Beyond; he is overwhelmed, engulfed, by the options, and we suddenly feel as if we're on an alien planet. (Later, the same man expresses wonder at the concept of a "toothbrush holder": What a bizarre world we live in!) Famously, in "Please Give," Catherine Keener feels overpowering guilt when she sees a slovenly man near a fancy restaurant. "Please, please take my leftovers," she says, and her neediness is palpable. It's as if she wants to go through the Stations of the Cross on a ...