★★★★
A revelatory performance by Melissa McCarthy is the foremost attraction of Can You Ever Forgive Me, the sophomore film from The Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller. Based on true events, this is a relatively low stakes take on criminal activity, albeit one with a winning streak of black comedy down the spine. McCarthy shines at every turn in an increasingly rare reminder that she’s a talent to be reckoned with.
★★★★★
Boxed into an old school 4:3 ratio, First Reformed is a crisp, elegant and divinely constructed think piece from a top of his game Paul Schrader. Ethan Hawke gives a career best performance in the role of a man conflicted by his faith, personal tragedies and brutal awakening to the world around him, which, he comes to realise, shares his suffering. This is a film that dares to compare its implicated audience to God in a Lacanian conception of the viewer-screen relationship and hits hard with its emotional resonance.
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