JtLeroy Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Tales of the City: Fake Tales of San Francisco
Filed under: Action », Classics », Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Romance », New Releases », Cinematical Indie »
Well, the big hullabaloo in town this week would have to be the Castro's
premiere of The
Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, based on the faux-moir by J. T. Leroy. For those of you who don't follow
San Francisco's literary scene – which is probably all of you – The SF Chronicle had a nice piece about how drugged-up, ex-hustler, super-shy, HIV-positive author and
celeb J. T. LeRoy turned out to be a big fat fraud. (And really, is HIV-positive status something that can be used as a
character detail? That's, uh, not cool, as the kids say.) I haven't seen The Heart is Deceitful yet, because I
know it's loaded with cross-dressing and drug use and sexual depravity and, like you, I go to the movies to escape
from work. If you're not feeling fraud-a-liscious, the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival – whose acronym is two letters shy of being a James Bond '60s bad-guy group – is closing up in San Jose, including a screening of the witty and fun Red Doors. Ask Burt Bacharach for directions. The Red Vic has King Kong, in case you can't get enough of an expensive, sad-looking monkey; finally, The Clay has a midnight showing of, God help us, The Goonies as part of their actually-quite-good Midnight Movie series. Remember folks: The Goonies is just a gateway film; soon, you'll be watching Explorers. …
See you around the Bay,
J.
Review: The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »
I've sat on this review for an awfully long time. Don't let anyone tell you that procrastination never pays off.
I saw The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things a year ago, at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival; by that point, it had already been on the festival circuit for almost a year. It was picked up by Palm Pictures for North American distribution at Cannes in 2005, exactly one year after its world premiere. At some point, it was possibly worth asking why writer/director/shameless showboat Asia Argento had so much trouble getting her splashily filmed, star-studded translation of name-brand memoirist J.T. Leroy's short stories into theaters. At this point, now that Leroy has been unmasked as the brainchild of three middle-aged wannabes, it's easy to close the case with a two-part answer: 1) the film is terrible, and 2) it is, in fact, so bad, that without a New York Times-endorsed scandal for Palm to latch its marketing campaign on to, its release would be damn near impossible. Oddly, now that it's able to hide behind the mask of Leroy's unmasking, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things gets to wear a certain kind of cachet; a literary scandal has a funny way of making what's actually been burned onto the celluloid seem a little less unconscionable.
So let's talk about that scandal. It's much more interesting than anything in Argento's film.
JT Leroy is taking over Hollywood
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Deals », Celebrities and Controversy », The Weinstein Co. », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Memoirist J.T. Leroy, an HIV-positive ex-hustler who survived an indescribably
awful childhood to become a best-selling author, was outed recently as a completely fictional creation dreamed up by a
real writer named Laura Albert. (Neither of whom should be confused with author James Frey, who also lied about his
life but stopped short of making himself up.) One of "Leroy's" books (really written by Albert), The
Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, was turned into a movie in the wake of the frenzied, fawning reaction that
greeted its publication; starring and directed by Asia Argento, the
film is set to open in the US next week. In an effort to embrace the hoax that is making them look like fools, Palm
Pictures changed the film's tagline to "Behind the greatest hoax of our time is the heartbreaking story that
started it all." Oh, the clever. Following that release (for which I assume Albert is getting paid - she's completely cleaning up here), The Weinstein Company has announced its intention to make a film about Leroy (him/her)self. Written by Captain Mauzner, the man who penned Factory Girl, the film will be based on Warren St. John's New York Times articles that exposed Leroy as a fake, so it'll be less a biopic than an expose. Thought Heart sounds humiliating to watch (A wrenching bio about the writer's horrible upbring that's entirely made up? No thanks.), there's a lot of potential in a fact-based Leroy project. If nothing else, it'll give Mauzner a great opportunity to frolic in a little bit of literary cloak-and-dagger and, if he does his job well, it'll be a great ride for viewers, as well.
Discuss: Should Gay Actors Stay in the Closet?
Sundance '10 Announces Non-Competing Film Premieres
'Up in the Air' Named Best Film of the Year by NBR
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The International 'Iron Man 2' Poster Subtracts a Suit
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