8.9 C
New York
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Advertisement

J.T. LeRoy (Blu-ray Review)

Directed and co-written by Justin Kelly, J.T. LeRoy tells the true-life story of an incredible hoax perpetrated by author Laura Albert (Laura Dern) as she convinces Savannah “Sav” Knoop (Kristen Stewart), the milquetoast half-sister of her boyfriend Geoff (Jim Sturgess)to become the living embodiment of her fictional character Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy. LeRoy becomes a popular figure amongst the elite, and Savannah herself becomes addicted to portraying the character and fooling people into believing he is a real person, but as J.T.’s fame increases and his public appearances become bigger events, with a film about him even being put into the works, it becomes more difficult for Savannah and Laura to continue perpetrating the hoax.

With a true-life story as complex as this, especially including a fictional character as eccentric as J.T., this film should be a gripping drama or even comedy/drama. Instead we get a film about as bland and unsure if itself as Stewart’s portrayal of Savannah Knoop in the film.

Laura Dern – who puts in the strongest performance here – steals every scene she’s in, coming in like a tornado portraying Laura Albert as a self-centered, imposing, con-artist who can easily slip into any character. But Dern is swimming upstream in a film that knows not where it wants to go. Is it a farce about easily fooled Hollywood elite jumping on the next band wagon? Is it a poignant exploration of female sexuality (Savannah as J.T. begins to develop an attraction for a female filmmake, portrayed by Dianne Kruger)? Or is it a study on PT Barnum syndrome – people will believe anything if you tell it to them loud enough and enough times? It’s all and none of the above. At the end of this film you’ll come away feeling dissatisfied and hardly filled, like drinking a half-filled can of warm diet soda.

[envira-album id=”118184″]

The Video

The film hits Blu-ray in a competent AVC 1080p encodement that offers up good detail and a pristine picture.

The Audio

J.T. LeRoy gets a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as the only audio option. The mix is fine as far as clarity of dialogue and stereo imaging, but it is rather dry and lacking in dynamics until the musical soundtrack kicks in at various points, then it becomes offputtingly aggressive with instrumentation mixed into the surrounds and far off to the sides.

The Supplements

One would think that with a backstory as colorful as this one we could at least get a couple of good special features out of it, but we get zilch on this barebones disc.

The Final Assessment

J.T. LeRoy could have been so much better given the story on paper, but it is ultimately bland with dull performances all around except from Dern, and an uninteresting script. The Blu-ray offered up here looks good, although the audio mix only comes alive when the songs kick in.

J.T. LeRoy is out on Blu-ray & DVD June 24, 2019 from Universal

[amazon_link asins=’B07QY5SVWP,B07QV42G7P’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’theaterbyte-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9f43f929-59d0-436c-83ad-63cb1359b441′]


2.6 / 5 TheaterByte Rating
{{ reviewsOverall }} / 5 User Rating (0 votes)
R (for language throughout, sexual content and brief nudity)Rating Certificate
Black Leather Jacket | Buffalo Gal Pictures | Crosby Street Films | Fortitude International | LBI Entertainment | Sobini Films | The Fyzz Facility Film One | Thirty Three Management | Universal Pictures Home EntertainmentStudios & Distributors
Justin KellyDirector
Justin Kelly | Savannah Knoop (memoir & writer)Writer
103 Mins.Run Time
$22.98MSRP
4 Jun. 2019Release Date
2.39:1Aspect Ratio
AVC 1080pVideo
English DTS-HD MA 5.1Audio
English SDH | SpanishSubtitles
The Creative Content
The Video
The Audio
The Supplements
Summary
The true-life story of Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart), who spent several years pretending to be J.T. LeRoy, the made-up literary persona of her half-brother's girlfriend, the author Laura Albert (Laura Dern). The film defies its complex and interesting backstory and instead offers up a bland and uncompelling story with underwhelming performances apart from Dern. The Blu-ray has a good picture and decent sound, but has no special features or extras.
What people say... Login to rate
Order by:

Be the first to leave a review.

User Avatar User Avatar
Verified
{{{ review.rating_title }}}
{{{review.rating_comment | nl2br}}}

This review has no replies yet.

Avatar
Show more
Show more
{{ pageNumber+1 }}
Advertisement

Related Articles

Join the Discussion on TheaterByte!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Stay Connected

301FansLike
0FollowersFollow
184FollowersFollow
1,710FollowersFollow
- Advertisement -

Notice of Compliance with FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 255

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR part 255 guidelines, this website hereby states that it receives free discs and other theatrical or home entertainment "screeners" and access to screening links from studios and/or PR firms, and is provided with consumer electronics devices on loan from hardware manufacturers and/or PR firms respectively for the purposes of evaluating the products and its content for editorial reviews. We receive no compensation from these companies for our opinions or for the writing of reviews or editorials.
Permission is sometimes granted to companies to quote our work and editorial reviews free of charge. Our website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or the services we write about. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Latest Articles