Does the letter of authenticity come with a letter of authenticity?

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

As we move through this second-most Academy-centric of months, we arrive upon Can You Ever Forgive Me?, a better class of would-be Oscarbait True Story: one with a strong hook (crime) and a strong aesthetic (brown), but which only uses those things as a starting point to get to what it's really after, namely one of 2018's better character studies, as offered by way of one of 2018's strongest (if not wholly surprising) lead performances.

2018

Directed by Marielle Heller

Written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (based on the book by Lee Israel)

With Melissa McCarthy (Lee Israel), Richard E. Grant (Jack Hock), Dolly Wells (Anna), and Jane Curtin (Marjorie)

Spoiler alert: moderate (technically N/A, but it's not that well-known a story)

But at least they didn't bring Harold Ramis back as a CGI ghost, even though you can be completely certain that somebody wanted to

GHOSTBUSTERS

Not the slightest patch on the original, and that's mostly okay, since that's not one of the film's apparent goals, anyway.

2016

Directed by Paul Feig

Written by Katie Dippold and Paul Feig

With Kristen Wiig (Dr. Erin Gilbert), Melissa McCarthy (Dr. Abigail Yates), Kate McKinnon (Dr. Jillian Holtzmann), Leslie Jones (Patty Tolan), Chris Hemsworth (Kevin), Neil Casey (Rowan North), and the principal cast of the original Ghostbusters (Several Obscene, Filmbreaking Cameos)

Spoiler alert: mild