Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
When a bestselling celebrity biographer is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.
Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant deliver career-best dramatic performances that elevate this modestly scaled true-crime character study well above its premise. The film's chief distinction is its acting — McCarthy's unsentimental, unglamorous portrayal of Lee Israel is genuinely exceptional. The plot is engaging but relatively straightforward, following a predictable arc of escalation and consequence without major surprises. Cinematography is competent and atmospheric in its grimy New York milieu but not visually distinctive. Novelty is moderate — the subject matter (literary forgery, faded celebrity, female antihero) is somewhat fresh, but the biopic-crime structure is familiar. The ending is emotionally honest but deliberately muted, satisfying without being memorable.