Author: The JT LeRoy Story
| Release Date: September 9, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireSep 9, 2016
Author is a particular kind of documentary: a first-person account of the creation of a myth by its creator. As such, it poses all sorts of questions about the intersection of art, celebrity and psychological disturbance in our media culture, but it also gives us Laura Albert as a shape-shifting artist of astonishing talent, resourcefulness and originality. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJul 22, 2016
Director Jeff Feuerzeig tracks Albert’s bizarre scheme in her own words, constructing a fascinating treatise on creative desire, internal grievances and fame as compelling as anything the writer herself dreamed up. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 22, 2016
That Feuerzeig can navigate this hall of mirrors so cleanly and effectively is positively supernatural. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 15, 2016
Feuerzeig lets us put together the puzzle pieces of Albert’s story. The film’s final five minutes — a punch to the heart — make it all clear. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJason OoiSep 9, 2016
Author: The JT Leroy Story, a documentary from Jeff Feuerzeig,is as truthful as it gets. Yet its content is so wildly absurd, that it plays like a work of fiction. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 7, 2016
Even when the film fails to ask so many of the questions its narrative begs, Author is still a tricky, fascinating look at the strange nexus of art, artifice, and the intoxicating cult of celebrity. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkJul 22, 2016
Author: The JT LeRoy Story is wildly entertaining and truly stranger than fiction. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 8, 2016
You may well question the worth of a documentary that so fully embraces the perspective of a narrator this unreliable, just as you may crave the reassuring conventions of a more balanced filmmaking approach. But even for those who don’t regard the notion of perfect objectivity with the wariness it deserves, there are compensatory insights in this movie’s unapologetic fascination with its subject. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyJul 25, 2016
The result is so far-fetchedly entertaining it feels like a fantasist’s fevered imaginings. Which, in a way, it is. Read full review
80
The GuardianNigel M SmithJul 22, 2016
Author is less a run-through of one of the biggest controversies to plague the literary world in the past century, than an illuminating study of the enigmatic and driven woman behind the phenomenon. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 10, 2016
Your reaction to Author will come down the question that haunts the film, and assuredly Albert herself: Do the widely-praised writings of LeRoy become less praiseworthy when you know they were crafted under false pretenses? It's a question worth chewing on even if the film asking it stacks the deck. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 9, 2016
Feuerzeig makes the fateful choice of telling the whole story through Albert’s eyes, and decked out in too-old-for-this leather and straightened hair and piercings, she conjures up a hellish life. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartSep 8, 2016
Author is one of the most entertaining documentaries in recent memory — and, possibly, the origin story of catfishing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisSep 8, 2016
Even to those familiar with the bizarre affair, “JT Leroy” offers some new insights, not only because of the presence of Albert and her home movies, but also because of a treasure trove of phone recordings between JT and numerous luminaries. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesSep 7, 2016
The film effectively explores nature of identity, celebrity, and the creative process in a way that is satisfying, even if many of the questions it raises don’t go entirely answered. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 14, 2016
Feuerzeig has made a fascinating documentary about a fascinating occurrence. Author implicitly stokes so many of the moral questions the incident inherently raises. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 15, 2016
We get Albert’s side of the story, and that’s clearly problematic. How much faith should we put in the account of someone who tells such massive whoppers? That question constantly hovers over Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary, which is by turns fascinating and unseemly. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerAug 15, 2019
JT LeRoy is a decent telling of a fascinating, resonant true story. If it never really fulfils its promise, it’s worth it to see two major talents — Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern — in full flow. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweSep 9, 2016
Although it’s clear that her dauntingly complex personality contributes to her abilities as a superior storyteller, Feuerzeig and Albert now ask us to believe a proven unreliable narrator’s account of her own life, which largely lacks corroboration. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 8, 2016
"Author” is most interesting — and least self-aware — as a study in the gullibility and narcissism of the celebrity class. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 6, 2016
Documentary filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig turns a controversial literary hoax that fooled the world (and many a celebrity) into a tale of a private desperation but tidies it up too much. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyJul 22, 2016
Whatever literary talent Leroy was praised for shouldn’t have been so quickly forgotten and dismissed by those who’d once championed it. However, that praise was won under false pretenses — and while you can criticize Leroy fans for claiming to love the writing when they really fell in love with the myth it came packaged in, you can’t blame them for feeling ripped off. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 15, 2016
These are some of the questions raised and left on the table in the fascinating but frustratingly murky Author: The JT Leroy Story, a documentary by Jeff Feuerzeig that’s worth seeing if only to argue with the movie and with yourself. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanSep 5, 2016
Jeff Feuerzeig isn't skeptical enough of Laura Albert's explanations and rationalizations. Read full review
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