Lee Israel, as she is depicted in director Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?, only liked four things in life: Writing, Dorothy Parker, drinking, and her cat. If you weren't one of those things, then she had no time for you and would probably lazily insult you for standing in her way. Israel, sensitively portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, was a misanthrope of an all-too-recognizable order, frequently eschewing human company and hurling cusses at the people she did find herself next to.