Gay Best Friend: Jack Hock in "Can You Ever Forgive Me"
Monday, January 4, 2021 at 3:00PM by Christopher James
What fun it would be to sit with Melissa McCarthy's Lee Israel and Richard E. Grant's Jack Hock in Julius.
After covering Victor/Victoria last week, we got to thinking about that great sub-section of the “gay best friend” trope - The Gay Accomplice. Often a personal friend, the Gay Accomplice loves to come up with big schemes and be at the center of mischief. The friendship between the protagonist and the Gay Accomplice can exist before the scheme, but often times the friendship starts to revolve around their shared grift. Immediately, Richard E. Grant’s recently Oscar nominated performance as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller’s brilliant Can You Ever Forgive Me? lept to mind...
As noted in The Film Experience’s 2018 wrap up of best co-star chemistry, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant are dynamite together in the film. Despite both being straight in real life, they expertly bring to life the specificities of queer friendship. Our entry on Abby in Carol praised that film for showing the queer friendship of two former flames. Here, sex is removed from the table. Their queerness is an essential bedrock to Lee Israel and Jack Hock’s friendship not because they have similar attractions. In 1991, when the film is set, members of the LGBTQ+ community were very much ostracized for their “lifestyle.” Lee and Jack say fuck it to respectability. If they’re going to be social outcasts, they’re going to get day-drunk and throw shade at all the so-called “normal functioning adults'' in their vicinity.
Richard E. Grant's Jack Hock walks into Julius exactly 11 minutes into the film and immediately buys Lee a drink, even if she's the "posh writer."
Lee Israel: You pissed in a closet.
Jack Hock: I did what?
Lee Israel: You pissed in a closet. Now I remember. Nobody could stop talking about the English gentleman...
Jack Hock: Why thank you.
Lee Israel: Who was so shit-faced, he mistook the closet for the can. You ruined thousands of dollars worth of furs. Those old biddies didn't know what hit them!
[both laugh]
Lee Israel: Oh the disgusting furs covered in piss. Dogs followed them home!
Jack Hock: [laughing] Oh I'm glad somebody found it amusing. Some folks stopped talking to me after that night.
Lee Israel: Well, fuck 'em!
Jack saunters into Julius for his first scene and instantly carves out a place in audiences’ hearts. He waltzes over to Lee and immediately strikes up conversation, as both were hazy acquaintances from getting drunk at a dinner party. Ah the thrill of semi-knowing a friend-of-a-friend from multiple social-gatherings. How delightfully pre-COVID. With big pearly whites, beguiling blue eyes and joie de vivre to spare, Grant seems to shape Jack after some sort of Disney cartoon meant to tempt Pinocchio to the dark side or something. Luckily, Lee has moved to the dark side long ago. Those who have already “moved to the dark side” still need some sort of companionship.
As the two dish gossip about people in the literary world and trade barbs, a friendship is born. They get rip roaring drunk and spend the full day together laughing and terrorizing a snooty bookseller that was rude to Lee. The initial bond is formed because of a shared “us against the world” mentality. Remembering Jack peed in a closet doesn’t disgust Lee, it endears her to him. His drunken shenanigans took the piss (pun intended) out of the “old biddies” that Lee hates to engage with.
Jack and Lee engage in one of their favorite past-times, prank calling enemies.
As they continue to be drinking buddies, Lee opens up to Jack about her latest scheme. She’s forging notes from famous writers and selling them for more money than they are worth. Just as Jack hilariously doesn’t know who Fanny Brice is, he also can’t pronounce Marlene Dietrich. Even if he doesn’t know the players or the in-jokes, Jack shamelessly lives for the deceit and drama. He frequently makes mention of his cocaine dealings and being banned from all Duane Reades because of frequent shoplifting. Deciphering the truth through Jack’s whiplash-inducing mix of bravado and misdirection is tough to do. As a born hustler, Jack is consistently trying to spin a yarn to get him ahead. However, Lee listens just the right amount to let the falsities go in one ear and out the other while she checks him for the truths.
Jack makes it very clear that he’s more than just Lee’s partner in crime, he’s her best and only friend. One key moment occurs when an exterminator is finally called to Lee’s apartment to take care of her fly problem. The exterminator balks because of how terrible her apartment smells. Jack also confirms to Lee, it really does smell. Embarrassed, she kicks them both out. A moment later, Jack knocks on the door. He doesn't mind the smell and is willing to help her clean. The two tidy up the place (cat poop galore) and stay up all night prank calling Lee’s agent (the fabulous Jane Curtin). While Grant does a great job showing the caring heart behind Jack’s caustic wit, it’s McCarthy who sells the friendship here. Lee is sullen, abrasive and irascible to most she meets. Around Jack though, she’s positively giggly. It’s the perfect melding of two acting sensibilities as they both give each other unexpected notes to play off of. The more walls McCarthy’s Lee puts up, the more Jack, like a lonely puppy dog, changes his demeanor to try and spend more time with her.
As Jack roundabout confirms Lee's suspicion that he's homeless, Lee allows Jack to stay on her couch.It doesn’t take long for Jack to show up at Lee’s doorstep once again. This time, he’s beat up and bloodied. When Lee takes him in to clean his wounds, she delicately ascertains Jack doesn’t have anywhere to go that night. The two of them have been reading each other for filth the entire movie, but Lee doesn’t go in for any digs. Instead, she opens up her home to him and allows him to stay on her couch. This is when he becomes further embroiled in her scheme and ends up selling the letters, negotiating upcharges for them. Jack has opened himself up for Lee long ago. However, this section of the movie is where Lee, for the first time, truly puts her trust in someone else.
Unfortunately, she only reaps the benefits of this trust for a short period of time. After her beloved cat dies under Jack’s care, she banishes him from her apartment and life. Marielle Heller knows what she has in McCarthy’s performance and wisely frames her shots with McCarthy and focus and Jack out-of-focus in the background. Lee has always pushed people away when they get too close. From the moment Jack crashed on her couch and joined her operation, she was waiting for the moment that he would betray her. Lee’s hurt is real and Jack knows it. However, there’s a bit of confirmation bias to it. People always let Lee down, so she spent her time waiting for Jack to let her down as well.
After the dust has settled, Jack tries to apologize to Lee again but she only wants to talk business. The personal aspect of their relationship has died along with her cat, but their professional relationship is still intact out of necessity. Grant’s expressive eyes convey unimaginable sadness. He’s managed to cajole his way into Lee’s guarded heart, but she’s shut him out for the first time. Jack has placed all his chips on his friendship with Lee. She’s his constant companion, his home and his source of money. A born hustler, Jack knows how to land on his feet time and time again. Still, Lee provided him two things he’s rarely had in his life: stability and friendship.
All good friends make up eventually. Even after everything falls apart, Lee and Jack manage to come together at Julius.
Lee Israel: [laughs] I had such an urge to trip you just then.
[Both laugh]
Jack Hock: You're a horrid cunt, Lee.
Lee Israel: You too, Jack.
Screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty leave the relationship on a perfect note. Lee meets up with Jack at Julius (even though she’s technically supposed to be at an AA meeting), only to find him limping in with a cane and a bald head covered up with a wrap. It’s clear he’s dying of AIDS, but Holofcener and Whitty don’t want to use that for cheap sentimentality or tears. After a real apology, the two slip back into taking the piss out of each other. Never before has “cunt” been such a term of endearment. It’s also important that Jack’s health not curb his wit or his bite. AIDS may be robbing him of his life, but it’s not changing the core of who he is. Likewise, Lee isn’t going to play softball with him even if she doesn’t know how much time they have left. It’s a beautiful note to punctuate the friendship on.
Crime and heist movies are often made to be liberating. We’re supposed to identify with Danny Ocean and his crew as they pull off daring feats of thievery. This is doubly true of Lee Israel and Jack Hock. Thrilling may not be the operative word. Instead, I might go so far as to say it's edifying to watch them earn hundreds of dollars a pop for these delightful fan-fiction forgeries of Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and Marlene Dietrich. Be gay, do crimes - especially crimes twisting the words of queer icons. This is what happens when you cast people into the shadows or back them into a wall. They’re going to find ways to survive on their own terms. Lee says at her final court hearing, “In many ways, this has been the best time of my life.” It’s easy to agree with her assessment. She got to do some of the writing she was most proud of and Jack got to flounce around New York taking the piss out of socialite literary collectors. Best of all, the two got to celebrate by downing drink after drink at Julius and cackling about their latest mark. They didn’t have grand ambitions of getting rich, famous or celebrated. They just wanted enough to get by and to have a little bit on the side to enjoy a steak and martini. Who among us wouldn’t want the same?
Previously in Gay Best Friend
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Toddy (Robert Preston) & Squash (Alex Karras) in Victor/Victoria (1982)
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Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) in Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010)
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Gareth (Simon Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah) in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
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George Downs (Rupert Everett) in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Reader Comments (17)
“Jack Hock, big cock.” Grant should have won the Oscar. At least he got to hang out with Barbra Streisand.
Such a shame he didn't win.Love him in general.
markgordonuk: DOUBLE (Triple?) shame that he lost to a category fraud prior winner. At least losing to Sam Elliott, Adam Driver or, even, Sam Rockwell (at least that's not a performance that doesn't belong in supporting!) would have left him (and the other losers) with...dignity?
Great performance
The most realistic of the the gay bes friend on screen. That's chemestry!
if somebody let my cat die on their watch i'd spend the rest of my days making sure they were miserable [but i guess i'm not as warm and cuddly as lee israel]
loved everything about this movie and cosign the disappointment grant didn't win [although i've never witnessed a more delighted nominee]. even bafta fell for the green book category fraud
Interesting that two of last three entries cover characters whose friendship is with another LGBTQ person, since the "gay best friend" trope generally refers to someone whose purpose is to be a sidekick/confidant/nursemaid/etc to a straight protagonist.
Oh how dare Mccarthy and Grant take gay roles when they are both straight (irony). Brilliant actors doing the best work of their career. Thankfully the “you can only play what you are” trope didn’t (yet) dominate casting choices. Great piece (and series)
What a great movie and what a fuckery that Richard lost. Same goes for Robert Preston
We all agree that Grant was robbed
It was robbery.
Grant was robbed and seems like a glass closet kind of fellow.
Peggy Sue
Totally agree with you!
"Make me 29, with perfect skin. Don't make me sound stupid..."
Ugh...that kills me every time.
Lovely writeup. This was such a great relationship and performance - pair of performances. And yes, Grant should have won the Oscar.
/3rtful -- correct on the first part. incorrect on the second. Happily married to the same woman he was married to right before he got famous (she's also in the movie industry as a dialogue coach). they have two kids. His obsession with Streisand makes people think he's gay but he's so adorable about it. There's a great part of his book on his Streisand obsession.
Maybe Claudio's the wordsmith around here but even I have heard the word 'arrangement' before. A new one for you Nat.