User reviews

I watched this film not knowing anything about the books of Laura Albert or the true hoax that she partnered with Savannah Knoop to create. This movie is based on Knoop's memoirs and I thought it was a layered and complex film that never seemed to work the way the filmmakers intended it to.

Laura Dern is, as usual, terrific in her role as Albert. I really like the understated acting of Kristen Stewart, as a rule, but she's just too low-key here and against the overbearing and manipulative character of Dern's it just gets annoying to watch after a while. Kelvin Harrison Jr. shines in a supporting role and Diane Kruger is excellent here as well.

As I read, there's at least 1 doc on this whole affair so I may very well check that out and compare it to the movie. Overall, I can't say exactly why but I felt there was much more to this true story than what was given to us on screen.

5/10 - interesting true story doesn't translate well in this whacky indie

Based on a true story that was based on a big fat lie, J.T. LeRoy is first and foremost, a delicious vehicle for thespian wonder Laura Dern, and second, a bit of mishandled mess.

Messes can be good though, and this curious ride delivers the old truth is crazier than fiction roller coaster thrill of thin celebrity skin, and those infatuated with peeling back layers at all costs. A gender fluid teen, Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy was the pen name of Laura Albert. Which would have been fine, and in literary circles, not that uncommon, except that Albert decided to bring her greatest fictional character to life.

J.T. LeRoy, the film, zooms in on the tightening noose Albert has created with her tepid boyfriend's sister - a wonderfully understated, uncomfortable, unnerved, silly wigged Kristen Stewart. As the controlling director of white lie operations, Dern is fabulous as both the manipulative author, and as the uptight handler Speedy she creates to oversee her mystery puppet.

As complicated as all this all sounds, it is much more than that. The role of gender variations is a key underlying theme, and unfortunately, is fumbled. Too bad, cuz there is a pretty good movie here, and one helluva story.

The story is interesting, but the film is not particularly engaging. Laura Dern is great in the film, as usual. The rest is pretty bland, and does not leave a lasting impression.

What was that? The storyline was a great idea but they didn't work well with it. Came out slow and boring. Is kristen supposed to fool them that she is a guy? She looks nothing like a boy even when she is dressed as one. 2 stars for Laura Dern who did amazing job. Great actress!

I'm not familiar with the real story underlying this movie and the source material, but the very idea of it is fascinating. In terms of a narrative concept, it's fantastic groundwork for a full-length feature. A strong cast has been assembled, which is to say primarily Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart, but certainly also the supporting cast including Jim Sturgess, Diane Kruger, and more. The adapted screenplay developed between director Justin Kelly and author Savannah Knoopis wonderfully strong, filled with very complicated characters, wired dialogue, varied and tense scene writing, and a duly compelling, satisfying narrative. The crew working behind the scenes made fine contributions, including costume design, hair and makeup, lighting, cinematography, and editing. All the component parts are here for what should be a rich, absorbing viewing experience. So why does it feel like 'JT LeRoy' just never quite hits its mark?

To be sure, this is enjoyable, and I appreciate what everyone involved put into it. In every instance that could or should inspire a "eureka!" moment, however, the epiphany fails to arrive. Dern gives a dynamic, harried performance as Laura Albert that bursts with personality; Kruger isn't far behind, as Eva's obsession with JT increasingly jeopardizes the charade. Stewart's complex role as Savannah gives her an opportunity to once again demonstrate the controlled nuance that we know she has the skills to embrace. However, none of the acting truly pops with the vibrancy that would help to make the film the most impactful that it could be; it seems like the cast are somehow restrained from giving 100%. Similarly, the very premise is rife with drama; as the course of events progresses and wildly spirals out, the fiction woven by the characters increasingly teeters on an edge, making the viewer wonder just how it's all going to fall apart. In some indistinct way, however - even as slight airs of psychological drama flavor the edges of the plot - the utmost vividness is more brilliant in concept than in execution, almost as though the movie is coming to us through several panes of dirty glass. The full brunt of the story just isn't communicated.

As one last insult to injury, the final scene feels tacked on almost as if it were an afterthought, and it doesn't meaningfully add to the picture. The end result is a title that starts with a fabulous notion, but never especially seems to advance beyond it; it's very pretty mud that these wheels are stuck in, but they spin uselessly nonetheless. I don't dislike 'JT LeRoy,' and I do think it's quite worth watching on its own merits. All the same, the impression I'm left with is that we're just not getting the full power of what this may have been, and I'm a little disappointed. If you have the opportunity to watch then it's worth 110 minutes of your time - however, I just don't feel that this is something you need to go out of your way for, even if you're an especial fan of someone involved.

A one-word review of 'JT LeRoy' could simply be: "Almost."

This was an interesting true story was not aware of until trailer on someone's blog. I knew nothing of it beforehand so that was nice as very much pop culture person. Now back to my review title. Laura Dern is great as in almost every role acted in. Kristen Stewart like most strong opinion not a good actor. If JT was played by different actor I think this would be better movie overall. Kristen is same in every role, enough said! Give it a look see just to know how crazy this true story is! 5/10

It's 2001 San Francisco. Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart) visits her brother Geoffrey Knoop (Jim Sturgess) and his wife Laura (Laura Dern). Laura writes the novel Sarah under the pen name JT LeRoy with a picture from a thrift store. It's a fictional biography of a nameless abused boy whose mother Sarah is a prostitute in West Virginia. Laura has been giving a voice to JT on the phone and now she wants to use Savannah as the physical presentation of the boy. Laura pretends to be JT's British assistant who controls his every move. Eva (Diane Kruger) is a fan taken with the mysterious JT.

I'm getting a little tired of Kristen Stewart's intense reticent. She keeps doing the same moves. Savy is not the most compelling protagonist in this story anyways. This really has to be Laura's story. The only way to place her concluding speech in any context is to show her life. Savy doesn't seem to have agency at the beginning. It doesn't make her that compelling until she starts taking charge of herself. Whenever Eva comments on their phone calls, I keep thinking that the phone calls should be done on camera. Savy is the second or third most interesting character in her own story. It's an interesting story nevertheless.

Laura Dern is always good. Kristen Stewart is awful. Twilight did not require any acting depth, and Stewart has never had any. Even more so, when she tries to do anything but gloomy and brooding.

Movie was uninspiring, and dull

"The truth," said Oscar Wilde "is rarely pure and never simple." This is the case in the true story and stranger than fiction tale of Savannah, a real life avatar for the fictional author JT LeRoy. When JT writes a best seller about his life as a gender mysterious truck stop sex worker, there is intense pressure for the author to reveal himself. Savannah (Kristen Stewart) is convinced by her sister-in-law, the real author, to pose as JT. Savannah does this well, in fact too well. She plays JT for years, falls in love as JT, and the story gets to the Cannes film festival before Savannah is outed as a fraud. But JT is loved for giving people the freedom to be whoever they want and to explore the darker regions of the human experience, and such will never die. Sometimes lies are truer than the truth.

JT LeRoy is fascinating and relevant because everyone, to one extent or another, wears masks and no one is really who they say they are. The film explores how something like JT could happen, primarily with regard to Savannah, and the ramifications for the people involved. Stewart does a wonderful job in the role. Surprisingly, 90% of the film was shot in Winnipeg. Savannah and Justin Kelly attended the same Toronto international film festival showing that I did.

And Kristen Stewart in it. I think she did an excellent job portraying this vulnerable, susceptible & facile character. I love how the camera sticks to her during dialogues & closeups. And the slight coarseness of her otherwise childlike voice is irresistible. Very watchable and moving overall.

The overall actors,acting,storyline & cinematography was average.

Didn't know this was based on a true story,regardless doesn't improve the movie.

If you're a fan of any actors in this,worth your time to watch.. Still,perhaps not!

Yes, I'm daring to say it. Kirsten Stewart, who can't act, has found her perfect vehicle. All she has to do through the whole movie is keep her head down and her face hidden. And to be honest, even this seems to demanding for her and therefore comes off as very unauthentic.

It's a ridiculous farce of an attempt at a film which, gratefully, no on seems to like. Laura Dern was annoying as usual.

I didn't know about this story at all untIl I came across this film. It sounded interesting and promising. Unfortunately, it's another case where the film couldn't handle the plot. Laura Dern plays Laura, an author based in San Francisco who has found fame through a supposedly autobiographical novel that she wrote under the name "J. T. Leroy." She fuels the myth of this character by giving phone interviews with a deeper voice and even romancing a European actress/model who I discovered was Asia Argento in real life. It's not until Savannah (Kristen Stewart) moves in with her and her boyfriend (Jim Sturgess) that J. T. Leroy starts to make his public appearances.

Laura finds Savannah to be the perfect androgynous woman to bring her vision of J. T. Leroy to life. Savannah agrees to go along with the charade and soon finds herself hanging out with celebrities, traveling to big cities, and falling for the model that Laura has sweet talked through J. T. All this is based on a true story and believe me when I say this small summary I've typed up is much more interesting than the actual film. I'm not going to bash Kristen Stewart, she actually tried with her performance, I could tell. Sadly, it just fell flat. When she's acting as J. T. Leroy, it's just not convincing that anyone fell for this trick. Although the movie addresses that people questioned if J. T. was actually a female, but the way Stewart brings this character to life, there's just no question. Kristen Stewart's pan face acting did not work for this role, I don't think she was the right casting choice. It could've worked when she was in drag as J. T. but it didn't, she still looks like herself even in the "disguise." Laura Dern, on the other hand, is fantastic (as expected) She's the one who keeps you interested in watching, because without her I would've turned this film off a long time ago, but she kept me watching. Her character is more important than J. T., I mean she created J. T. all this mess is her doing. Sadly, the movie doesn't focus enough on her and just tells thing from Savannah's point of view. Maybe this could've worked if someone else played Savannah, but I think the film would've worked if it followed Laura more to understand why she created this fantasy in the first place.

The script has Laura say lines that basically explain her escapist tendencies. However, I wish it spent time with that instead of showing me what Savannah was doing because Stewart's performance made it seem like she wasn't struggling or anything, just sitting there not reacting to anything. Even when Stewart cries as this character, it's just so emotionless and it really helped drain the film. Add that to this movie's slow pacing, it's a recipe for disaster. This film moves really slow. I kid you not, in the scenes where Laura Dern is missing, I would fall asleep. It took me 3 days to complete this film cos every time Laura Dern was off screen, I would fall asleep and wake up to the film being over. I kept coming back because I was determined to come back to see how the truth is discovered and to see Laura Dern's performance. It's such a shame that her wonderful performance is wasted on this boring, dull film. I'd recommend this film to watch solely for her Dern's performance, but then you'd have to suffer through so many dragging, boring scenes.

Someone on youtube has to upload a video where it's this film but it's only Laura Dern, if it already exists then I suggest you watch that, instead of the actual film. The 3 stars are for Laura Dern's performance and the songs selected for the soundtrack. Skip this film.

I love Laura Dern in everything she does, but Kristen Stewart couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. The movie would have been so much better had they given the part to someone with talent.

Damaged persona author Laura Albert, after writing several books supposedly about her suffering at the hands of a seriously abusive mother, published her books under a 'fake' male name. When members of the book and movie world began showing serious interest in her publications, she convinced her gender confused sister-in-law to pose as the phantom author, JT Leroy. She then began promoting interviews under 'his' literary 'persona'. She/he was then set up to appear at press conferences in male attire, wig, and large dark glasses with various production meetings organized to push for funding and promotional setups.

It's a rather grotty scenario, and the further the charade is pushed the more obvious the deception becomes for all involved. Laura Dern works hard as the damaged writer, living out her impossible lie while Kristen Stewart plods along in the underwhelming role of JT Leroy. It's well photographed by Bobby Bukowski, but the screenplay and direction by Justin Kelly ends up being just another ugly 'modern' movie, about 'modern' ugly people. This supposed fact based story (difficult to know where the 'truth' lies) also shines a light on how easily conned our modern pop stars, and movie makers can be.

For the discerning viewer: Again SBS World Movies plays it as an M, but this is MA/R material, time they employed better classifiers to more correctly inform us. Endless F bombs, booze, and sex scenes (some sleazy) throughout.

I had never heard of the story of JT LeRoy before watching Justin Kelly's "Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy". It's certainly a fascinating story, even if the movie never totally hits the mark in telling the story.

The strong point is the performances. Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Jim Sturgess, Diane Kruger and Kelvin Harrison put on excellent performances. I guess that if there's a problem, it's that the whole story was too much to fit in a movie; maybe it would've worked better as a miniseries.

All in all, it's not a bad movie, it just feels incomplete. I do recommend the movie, even if it never fully lives up to its potential. I'd say that in the mid-to-late 2010s, Kristen Stewart fully broke away from that vampire franchise that was nothing but an espousal of Mormon ideology.

I knew nothing of this tale, but am aware that literary license allows for all forms of fantastical creations including interesting pseudonyms. Not sure if it's better to look up the history of this true story before or wait 'till after watching. One cannot know all, but it appears to be a somewhat accurate accounting. Great acting. Worth reading the background & then watching again.