Review: JT LeRoy

"Sometimes the lies are more true than the truth," one character says in JT LeRoy, a fascinating look at not only one of the greatest literary hoaxes but also of gender fluidity, queer identity, authenticity and the shallowness of celebrity.

The story had already been chronicled before in Jeff Feuerzeig's 2016 documentary, Author: The JT LeRoy Story, which chronicled the scheme hatched by Bay Area author Laura Albert (Laura Dern), who had published a best-selling semi-autobiographical tale under the nom de plume of JT LeRoy. What's the problem, one may ask, writing under a different name is not exactly uncommon. Yes, but less common is pretending that one's literary person is actually a real person - in this case, JT LeRoy was the son of a West Virginia truck stop hooker who was made to dress up and passed off as his mother's little sister. LeRoy's tales of a childhood filled with sexual abuse became a literary sensation, and the fact that LeRoy himself was a mysterious figure added to his celebrity.

LeRoy may not have been seen, but he was most definitely heard for Albert would conduct countless interviews with reporters and others over the phone, further perpetuating his mystique. Yet, even she realised that this couldn't go on - LeRoy's physical elusiveness was not only threatening book sales but also stoking Albert's own frustrations over lesser talents gaining more attention, she happened upon another way of furthering her scheme. She decided that her sister-in-law, Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart), could pose and pretend to be LeRoy. That Knoop possessed the perfect blend of androgynous looks and beguiling shyness and that she herself was still attempting to figure out who she was an added bonus.

What does it say about the world that it was more willing to hear tales of abuse and trauma and fete the bravery of, as Albert refers to him, "an itty-bitty Southern rent boy" than that of a woman who devised that very same boy in order express her own experiences? What does it also say about the nature of identity that how you feel you are isn't necessarily in sync with the body you've been born into? "I can be whomever I want to be," Knoop as LeRoy tells one reporter, but that declaration is also emanating from Knoop as Knoop and being exemplified by Albert as LeRoy or Albert as Speedie, the comically flamboyant British character she inhabited so she could masquerade as LeRoy's manager.

These are provocative themes that are fairly but unsatisfactorily explored. The film posits that both women were mostly motivated by a desire for self-exploration and to not allow themselves to be limited to societal confines. That may be the case, but one gets the sense that fame and financial gain were also motivating factors and the film may have benefited from that added layer of complexity. Nevertheless, this is a film worth watching for the performances from Dern and Stewart, both of whom are nothing less than magnificent.

JT LeRoy

Directed by: Justin Kelly

Written by: Justin Kelly, Savannah Knoop

Starring: Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Jim Sturgess, Diane Kruger, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Courtney Love, James Jagger