Reviews

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  ★★★★ review by Mike D'Angelo on Letterboxd

  72/100

  Second viewing, no change, though until the last five minutes I was ready to declare it my favorite film of the year (just as I was the first time). All that's needed is some tiny means of undermining Albert's authority. Instead, we get pop-psych rationalization (which could easily be a lie) followed by "where is she now?" text that seems to vindicate her, retroactively making the whole film feel a bit gross. Still, it's such an improbably wild ride, supported by such an insane wealth of "evidence," that I gaped my way through it all over again.

  Side note: I believe this is the only film I've ever seen that includes footage from an event at which I was present (the Cannes premiere of Heart Is Deceitful). I remember Savannah-as-JT saying "Vive la résistance!" Feuerzeig cheats a little by making it look as if the film played the Palais, though, when it was actually in the Fortnight (which is a completely different location half a mile or so away).

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  ★★★½ review by Sofa Sinema on Letterboxd

  I saw the Canadian premiere of Asia Argento's The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things and knew immediately that this blonde woman pretending to be the transgender poster boy JT Leroy was a scam. It's amazing how easily duped these elitist celebrities can be when they blindly follow their twisted progressive fantasies. Funny seeing Brett Ratner's name in the credits, and all the other connections to recent Hollywood scandals. 7.4/10

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  ★★★★ review by Jeff Stewart on Letterboxd

  In the early 2000's, an underground obscure author going only by the name J.T Leroy penned several novels and short stories that garnered wide-spread acclaim, attention, and fixation from readers and other artists like Billy Corbin, Winona Ryder, and Gus Van Sant. "J.T LeRoy" starts to make a lot of big-name friends and becomes an of-the-moment sensation. As time went on questions started to arise about the true authorship of the work. In Author: The JT LeRoy Story, Jeff Feuerzieg expertly peels back the curtain to reveal who really was this J.T Leroy that drew such a dedicated following of fans. Not really an investigative piece, the real author Laura Albert is revealed on-camera from the start to tell her engaging story, but rather an exploration of the world of fame and getting lost in that rabbit hole. In the process, reinventing one's self to match the idea of who you want to be to others.

  Another larger question that the film begs to ask is does it actually matter how authors of fiction present themselves? Laura Albert chose a pen name and made up a persona to hide behind for years, but she did craft the stories that gripped an audience. How much is what she did a Hoax? Legally yes there is plenty as is shown towards the end but isn't a relationship to a work our own doing and thus we can only blame ourselves? It's one of many introspective questions that will emerge afterward with this fascinating and probing documentary.

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  ★★★½ review by Jordi Sánchez-Navarro on Letterboxd

  Con brillantes recursos de puesta en escena y no pocos ecos de puzzles sobre la metaficción como F for Fake , Author: The JT LeRoy Story es un tratado sobre la creación literaria como psicosis y sobre el autor como construcción social. De paso, es también un who is who de buena parte de la fauna del indie americano de los 90.

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  ★★★★½ review by Jason Alley on Letterboxd

  An absolutely fascinating documentary about a true story that is almost impossible to believe, with more surprise twists and turns than you could ever find in a M. Night Shyamalan movie.

  Riveting, thought-provoking, surprisingly moving, and even hilarious at times, this is one of 2016's best films. There's nothing else like it. Seek it out!

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