Interesting film, which was probably better in its initial idea, than in its execution. At moments it is really weak, but then towards the end it has some illuminating moments. Laura Dern is brilliant. She is the sole of the film. Still story has some flows that spoil a lot of potential that could be developed into a masterpiece. Namely, the film used the true story about the writer's fraud identity to show a touching story about people's wish to cross over their gender identities and become somebody else. The film exploited the old paradox shown in the famous film "Victor, Victoria", where an actress pretends that she is a man who performs as a woman. This is how she and her friend manage to hide a fact that she is just another, proper but uninteresting female singer and actress. People do suspect that she is a woman, but they are being fooled by the explanation that it is just an act. All these elements are present in JT LEROY story as well, even the fact that whole fraud starts going down when the main pretender falls in love., and can't take the fraud going on. What is different in JT LEroy movie is that the pretender, played by Kristen Stewart, indeed has an issues with her own sexuality, and is clearly struggling with her desire to be a cis man. And of course, unlike "Victor, Victoria", this is not a comedy...
The film has a serious problem with time framing which is bad and confusing, and so many details are badly incorporated in the story. For instance, we have a two minute of a manager played by Courtney Love, who should be an important person in the story, but then the script forgets about her. Also, some elements in the behavior of the European actress, Eva, are not clear, we are not clear whether she knows or cares whether JT is a girl or a boy. It is shown as somehow irrelevant for her, but come one, it can't be irrelevant to that point, that you even don't mention in the movie, especially, when you are intimate with someone. Dianne Kruger is a high class actress, her character is shown in such a way that everybody would fall in love with her, let alone a young shy and insecure queer girl. Pity that Kruger's talent has not been used to picture a slightly different, multilayered type of actress - not just always a screaming, ambitious and shallow diva.
At last, its always difficult to comment on Kristen Stewart, because she has huge ups and downs in her acting, and she is still looking for her chance to show whether she is really good. I mean, she is good, but not all the time, and not in every aspect. It looks she is getting bunch of roles of young, insecure, unremarkable women, and, man, I would not say she is doing very well with it. Give that role to Saoirse Ronan or Chloe Sevigny (15 years) ago, or this new British actress Jodie Comer (Killing Eve show) and you will get an Oscar role. Kristen is not exactly that type of actress, she still has to learn a lot and work on herself a lot. She was not a perfect choice for this role, simply, because she does not really look androgynous at all, in spite her boyish style. Plus, her anemic sick looking face became a convention wherever she plays. Its becoming boring. She is definitely underestimated as an actress, but also overrestimated in terms of her physical abilities, and entire screen persona. For androgynous roles she should work a bit on her looks, stile, appearance, she has to gain some muscles and some manly attitude. For now, she is still unconvincing.
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