Author: The JT LeRoy Story (2016)

Author: The JT LeRoy Story (2016)

Writer/Director: Jeff Feuerzeig

This is not an objective telling of the JT Saga. This is flat out Laura Albert memoir. She seems to be in total control of the story. We hear her tapes of conversations with the stars, we mostly see her in the on-camera interview sections.

We don’t see what all these celebrities are thinking now, not so much just after the revelation of how they were fooled, but I can’t imagine a self-respecting celebrity appreciating Laura Albert sharing their presumably private phone conversation with the assumed boy prostitute to the world via this movie.

We don’t see any of the REALS. Actual street kids, West Virginia truck stop kid prostitutes, if there even are any, like in one of her books, the only one I read, Sarah.
The fact that she would take the identity thing so far that she would recruit a stand-in with a blond wig, a woman, pretending to be this boy genius street hustler, gives it all the whiff of a minstrel show of some sort. What do the real ones think?

Except, we are informed, it is still authentic because Albert channeled the pain of her own life into the fake identities.. She is so damaged she can’t write about herself or even as herself, she has to take on these other identities to open her heart. I guess that is why she has not written a book about all this but uses this movie instead to communicate her story. It could have been both, still can I guess.

Actually she was into talking even before writing because she used to call various helplines as other identities. Maybe she should start a podcast. Maybe she is way ahead of me and has 4 already hosted by various identities.
Is the on camera Laura Albert in her “punk” outfit in this movie the real one? Is she more Speedie who, to my taste, at least had a better flair for style.

What we do see is this wacky story. It is a very entertaining movie because on some level it is a pretty amazing stunt. And to hell with the trendy celebrities wanting to buddy up with TJ, who actually fell for the whole rather outrageous disguise bit. OK so I guess she pursued them. It’s funny to see them exposed.
Laura Albert is all edgy inside her head.

I had a Gullible Double Feature the night I watched this.
I watched Getting Clear again before it. At least she didn’t write something that enslaved people in some way to some wacky idea or something. Her stuff is just tasteless raunchy entertainment, I guess, minor, soon forgotten

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Directed by Asia Argento

I recently saw the documentary about Laura Albert (J. T. LeRoy) so that lead to looking at this byproduct of her work.

The movie is “better” than the J. T. LeRoy novel I read called Sarah. It wasn’t just the distasteful content, it was poorly written.  That is saying very little because I thought the novel was junk. I guess the explanation now it that it is a product of Albert digesting her trauma.

This movie is set in a similar lowlife truck stop abusive to children USA hick atmosphere as Sarah. But the thing is, it is a skillfully made movie. Asia Argento, who also stars as bad momma Sarah (this name again) knows how to make a horror movie. Perhaps it is in her genes. It has some nicely done CGI characters, a couple of recurring red birds, it all clips along at a brisk pace, it doesn’t bore the viewer. The kid who plays Jeremiah, her 9 year old son, is convincing. (I kind of wondered what the actor went through emotionally during this production.)
It’s all quite good, such as it is and taken on it’s own terms.
But I just have to ask myself, “Why?”

It’s a harsh little drama of this boy at the mercy of insane drunk, and otherwise drugged crazy abusive mamma. When he is taken away from her, his has to live with his crazy Christian religious fanatic grandparents who train him to preach on the street, beat his teen uncles, and give them all refreshing morning ice baths.

Is there a purpose for telling this story via film other than some sort of hipster attraction to low-life spectacles? Is it just another form of horror movie?
I was recently watching an interview with David Foster Wallace where he talks about moving image mass media and its bias toward sensation and spectacle in one form or another. He also said he didn’t have a TV because he can’t help but look himself even though aware of the inherent insidious attraction of this sort of product.
I guess I watched it for more or less the same reason. At least I still avoid murder, execution, and suicide viral videos in the “News”.