Opens November 30.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Lee Israel

Critics have praised Melissa McCarthy’s performance as Israel, a celebrity-biography ghostwriter-turned-letter-forger—who, in the film, is an “irascible anti-heroine” and “head-smashingly difficult . . . to be around.” Israel’s memoir of the same name is an unvarnished, nearly unapologetic look into that complicated mind, recounting the circumstances—some of which result from the genuine inequity of living in New York, some entirely of her own making—that led her to forge letters by the likes of Fanny Brice and Noël Coward in order to stay afloat. Reading Israel’s description of her friend Jack, whom she enlisted in her schemes, it’s not hard to see why Richard E. Grant has earned early Oscar buzz for playing him in the film. (Read the book).

by Mary Cybulski/© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox.

Opens October 19.

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff; Tweak by Nic Sheff

Father and son both wrote memoirs of their experience with addiction, though only one—Nic Sheff, now a producer on 13 Reasons Why—actually used. The movie, which stars Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, is an intimate father and son story, as David tries repeatedly to rescue his son, while Nic evades his grasp. In their separate memoirs, each man tells his side of the story: David trying to learn everything he can about addiction through journalistic research, Nic spending years trying to chase the feeling of his first high. The combination is powerful; the Sheffs have spent the years since their memoirs were published speaking around the country, even landing on Oprah’s couch. (Read the book).

Opens October 12.

First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen

One of the most famous, but least-known men in American history, Neil Armstrong comes in for the detailed biopic treatment in Damien Chazelle’s film First Man, starring Ryan Gosling as the famously taciturn astronaut. For much, much more detail, turn to Hansen’s extensive biography, based on interviews with Armstrong himself, troves of family data, and some of the lesser-known stories of the American space program. How can a man experience something as spectacular as walking on the moon, yet talk so little about it? Both the book and movie may give some idea. (Read the book).

Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Opens October 12.