An Honest Liar

This week a stunningly beautiful, brilliant and poignant new documentary about James Randi comes out and it is as riveting as any narrative film I have ever seen. "An Honest Liar: Truth and Deception in the Life of James 'The Amazing' Randi" paints a luscious portrait of James Randi and a fascinating history of the crusades that he has waged in the name of honesty - as well as two provocative discrepancies in his personal life.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

And sometimes revealing untruths is even stranger than anything you can wrap your mind around.

James Randi is a vigilante. He is exceptionally bright, gifted, articulate, audacious and relentless in a quest for truth that often consists of denouncing psychics/magicians who fall below his moral barometer. He feels that taking advantage of the limitations of consciousness as entertainment is perfectly acceptable; however, taking advantage of the limitations of consciousness to scam people for financial gain or trying to pass it off as "science" is utterly abhorrent.

James Randi devised elaborate hoaxes over many years to prove that renowned scientists could be easily fooled by magicians into thinking that such gimmicks as psychokinesis (supposedly moving or influencing objects with one's mind) were real and not optical illusions.

For four decades Randi took particular umbrage with master showman Uri Geller and publicly implored him in his book "The Truth About Uri Geller" and on multiple television appearances to stop referring to himself as a psychic. His main disgust was at the money wasted by lauded institutions such as Stanford University investigating illusionists such as Gellar. In the end, it is Uri Geller who sells fake diamonds on QVC while James Randi's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge remains intact.

I've always been a huge fan of James Randi, and this documentary makes me love his work even more. The Popof story alone makes this film worth watching, but there's tons more about him here. Definitely a must-see for any sceptic.

"An Honest Liar" (2014 release; 95 min.) is a documentary about the life and works of James "The Amazing" Randi, a magician and escape artist along the lines of the infamous Houdini. Like Houdini, Randi later becomes a fierce opponent/prosecutor of those who lie to and manipulate the public for personal and monetary gain (such as the so-called faith healers and those who proclaim to channel the dead).

Couple of comments: this documentary is co-directed by Tyler Measom (previously of "Sons of Perdition") and Justin Weinsteiny (previously of "Being Elmo"). In the early part of this documentary, we get an introduction as to Randi's background. Let me admit upfront that I had never heard of him. He left school at age 17 after having seen a magician's show in Toronto, deciding that he wanted to become "the next Houdini". By all means, Randi built a fabulous career (there are multiple clips from the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson). But things get a lot more interesting of course, once Randi decides (in the 1980s) to devote his efforts to exposing the cheaters and manipulators. The expose on self-proclaimed faith healer Peter Popoff is nothing short of brilliant (and stunning). "We're fighting the fakers", exclaims Randi. Towards the end of the documentary, when we get a taste of Randi's current personal life, there are a couple of further twists which I did not see coming.

"An Honest Liar" recently opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I finally had a chance to see it on its second weekend. The early evening screening where I saw this at was quite well attended, somewhat to my surprise. In the end, I found "An Honest Liar" an okay documentary, but not as compelling as certain other recent documentaries like "Finding Vivian Maier", just to name that one. Still, if you are into documentaries, "An Honest Liar" is worth checking out, be it in the theater, or eventually on Amazon Instant Video or DVD/Blu-ray.

There truly is something mystical about "An Honest Liar", that allows it to transcend its flawed structure and be relevant in spite of it. At its core, the ambition of the film is to establish and walk the line between what constitutes an illusion and what rises to the rank of deception. To achieve this, it takes a good, long look at the life of James Randi, renowned magician and skeptic of things in the paranormal.

Going beyond its overarching ambition, An Honest Liar builds on three parts - Randi's life as an artist, his challenges as a skeptic and his (intertwined) personal travail. The first is as interesting as magic can be, without ever revealing the secret behind tricks - I'm sorry, illusions. But the pace really picks up as the case for skepsis takes shape, trying to untie the blatant lies and manipulation from the willing suspension of critical thought and disbelief. The question of what really constitutes the truth, as expressed through the power of belief, both religious and - ironically - scientific, gets a fair, balanced and creative tackle. Ultimately, Randi's personal life and some surprising insights into the act of deception lying close to its core, becomes a bit of a meta-analysis of the previous two parts.

The problem is that this last segment mostly fails, because it appears very tangential to Randi's quest and shifts the focus on fairly mundane personal matters that are contorted somewhat to fit the wider arch.

Yet, it came easy to me to go beyond it.

Just because the directors' reach exceeded their grasp does not mean that the film doesn't work artistically, as an expression and an experience of boundary blurring between truth and lies. It achieves this by dragging you into taking a stand by the end, in a narratively artificial yet intellectually testing personal battle for Randi, after seventy minutes of case building and creating an emotional connection with the subject. In that, it is fun and relevant, stressing the strength of belief over fact, over truth and the challenges that lie in dealing with it.

I've always loved magic. I study films and music to the point that while I still appreciate art at its best, the secrets have been spilled. I want to keep the secrets of magic under wraps so the best showmen can still captivate me. I'd actually never heard of James Randi, a self- proclaimed substitute for Houdini after his death, or maybe I had but forgotten him, so it was a delight to find out he'd been involved in significant events in magic that I looked into - such as Uri Geller's live exposé. Even in his 80s he's a charismatic entertainer who's fun to watch. He knows the value of the secrets of magic, and hates when it's abused to manipulate people for profit, rather than entertain them for profit. It's very satisfying to watch Randi's successes as frauds are exposed and the filmmakers have a wealth of footage to illustrate their points. The chapters may seem to end prematurely, but it culminates in its crisis point in the third act in a way that keeps a balanced argument as to whether what Randi is doing is justice or invasive of people's freedom and hope. But what's most engaging about the doc is Randi's own life and the hidden side of him of his partner. An Honest Liar is a very well put together doc about an important figure in magic everyone should know about.

8/10