A discussion with actor Melissa McCarthy and writer Roxane Gay about the film Can You Ever Forgive Me?. McCarthy plays down-and-out celebrity biographer and cantankerous New Yorker Lee Israel. When her beloved cat becomes ill and she can't pay the medical bills, she turns to forging and selling letters by literary luminaries and finds she's quite good at it—as Lee puts it, she's a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker. Her drunken camaraderie with her lone friend Jack Hock (an absolutely charming Richard E. Grant) is the beating heart of this quietly queer film. The conversation was part of MoMA Contenders, The Museum of Modern Art’s renowned series of influential, innovative films from the past 12 months. Whether bound for awards glory or cult classic status, each of these films is a contender for lasting historical significance.