Author: The JT LeRoy Story
**** / *****
Directed by: Jeff Feuerzeig.
Written by: Jeff Feuerzeig.
There’s
no real investigation going on in Author: The JT Leroy story – and that’s not
really a bad thing. The investigation has already happened, and everyone
already knows that there never was a real person with the name JT LeRoy, who turned
his experiences as an abused son of a prostitute, and then his own time as a
drug addict and prostitute, into thinly veiled fiction of his own life.
Instead, we know that JT LeRoy, instead of being a teenage Phenom in the literary
world, was really Laura Albert – a middle aged woman who created JT LeRoy in
her own head, and wrote as him. When JT LeRoy became a bestselling author, and
celebrities wanted to meet him, and eventually Albert could no longer hide
anymore, we know that she convinced her sister-in-law, Savannah, to pose as
LeRoy, and be the public face of this new literary icon. By the time the movie
begins, the story is out – almost anyone watching the movie will already know
it, and so this movie does something different. It basically lets Albert tell
her own story, why she did what she did, and what she makes of it. Albert is a
gifted storyteller to be sure (I was never a huge fan of LeRoy’s books, but
Albert’s skill spinning this yarn is undeniable). I get that people out there
will think that this is basically the version of the story Albert wants, and
that it exonerates her – but I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.
I
do think that the documentary may have been stronger had director Jeff Feuerzeig
made a few different choices in making it. I don’t really think that
interviewing anyone else other than Albert helps the documentary very much – it
makes it seem like a more objective film than it actually is – and I don’t really
think the final scene of the movie, which reveals “shocking” information should
have been placed where it was – like everything else in the movie, we don’t
really know if it’s true or not, but placing it where he does, Feuerzeig seems
to imply that it’s somehow the key to the movie – the Rosebud – that explains
everything else. It doesn’t.
What
the film does amazingly well though is to dig into Albert, and allow her to
tell her story, the way she sees it. It is a fascinating story about many
things – literature, self-image, depression and our obsession with celebrity.
It forces you to question the ever interesting notion of separating the art
from the artist – and whether it is every truly possible. Does it matter that
Albert was the writer, who was making everything – including JT himself – up out
of her own mind? The books never claimed to be true – they were always listed
as fiction. Does it make it less honest, less real, because Albert wrote it,
instead of JT? Why? The words on the page are the same regardless of who wrote
them.
I
do wish that Feuerzeig had found a better way to undermine Albert’s story
better than he does. I am not saying that he needed to be harder on Albert – to
go after her, and get her to admit something. What precisely would see admit
that she hasn’t already? But there had to be a way to call some of what she is
saying more into doubt than Feuerzeig does. The movie doesn’t need to be a
gotcha! – but I think it needed another element to make it a truly great doc.
What
remains then is merely a very good documentary – a fascinating look inside one
of the most bizarre literary “hoaxes” in recent memory.
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