J.T. LeRoy

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.

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!

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 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.

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