An Honest Liar

Cast

Synopsis

An Honest Liar documents James Randi's early life as a carnival-bound refugee from Toronto who, early on, dedicated himself to learning every trick performed by Harry Houdini, and even improving on some of them. In one of his feats as an escape artist, Randi frees himself from a straitjacket while being hung upside down by his ankles over Niagara Falls.

Age and concerns over the danger of his profession and his health lead him to retire from that occupation and seek out not only a new career, but a crusading obsession that makes him a pop cultural fixture by the 1970s: As a scientific skeptic investigator and challenger to pseudoscientific and paranormal claims, which leads him to expose the deceit behind religious faith healers, psychics, and other con artists who exploit the public. Randi becomes a recurring guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and makes appearances on TV shows such as Happy Days and in rock music artist Alice Cooper's 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour, where Randi decapitates Cooper at the end of each performance.

The film spotlights some of the more notable targets investigated and debunked by Randi. One is mentalist Uri Geller, who performed psychic feats on the talk show circuit, such as bending a spoon with minimal contact, and guessing the contents of sealed envelopes and other objects. Randi worked closely with the staff of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson prior to a 1973 appearance on that program by Geller, who publicly claimed at the time that his acts were performed with genuine psychic ability, and not magic tricks. Randi had The Tonight Show staff observe strict controls over the materials that Geller would work with during his appearance to prevent any trickery or cheating by Geller. As a result, Geller was unable to perform any of the feats that he regularly performed on other TV shows. Another target is faith healer Peter Popoff, who during his church revival meetings, demonstrated personal knowledge of people in the audience, such as their names, addresses and illnesses, which he stated was due to the work of God. Randi discovered that the true source of this information was a radio in Popoff's ear with which he was fed information by his wife. Another venture on which Randi embarked had him perpetrating a hoax on the Australian public in which a young man claimed on Australian television to channel the spirit of an ancient seer. The man was in reality Randi's partner, performance artist José Alvarez. In another, Randi had two confederates, mentalist Steve Shaw and actor Michael Edwards, pose as mentalists in a Washington University in St. Louis study that mistakenly confirmed Geller as an actual psychic.

The film also details Randi's longtime relationship with Alvarez, his decision to publicly come out at age 81, and how Alvarez, at the time of filming, had recently been discovered to be living under a false identity, which leads to legal ramifications for the couple.

Production

In 2012 producers Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein visited James Randi at his home in Plantation, Florida to express interest in filming a documentary about his life. To illustrate their bona fides to him, they gave him copies of their previous documentaries. Randi comments, "When I saw the product that they had turned out, I thought to myself, 'These are the guys. These are the guys that I think I can trust with my life story.'"

The film was funded in part via a campaign Kickstarter, which successfully concluded on February 15, 2013, obtaining $246,989 USD from 3,096 backers, $98,989 more than its goal of $148,000. The film is produced through Left Turn Films, Pure Mutt Productions, and Part2 Filmworks by Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein, who also directed, and written by Weinstein, Measom and Greg O'Toole. Toole also edited the film. The film's music is produced by Joel Goodman. It is distributed by Abramorama.

Release

An Honest Liar was screened at the April 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. It was then screened May 1 and 3, 2014 at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival. It was also screened at the June 2014 AFI Docs Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature. Its wide releases was March 6, 2015.

On November 2, 2014 BBC Four aired the film as an episode of the documentary series Storyville, under the name: Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds.

Critical reception

The film holds a 97% score on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews with Critics Consensus "A thoughtful and surprisingly layered documentary enlivened by its subject, An Honest Liar serves as a well-deserved tribute to a fascinating life." Geoff Pevere, reviewing the film for The Globe and Mail, gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "aptly seductive", though he called into question whether the methods Randi used in the case of the Australian hoax were a form of dubious deceit themselves, stating, "The ultimate question in An Honest Liar is whether it’s possible to know so much about the method behind the magic without being fooled into believing your own act."

David Rooney, reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter, thought the film "intriguing", but felt the transition from Randi's investigations to the revelations about Alvarez were too abrupt, and the conclusions lacking full coherence, and summarized the film as "a compelling magic act that loses focus in the big finish when the cloak gets whisked away."

The film was a Critics' Pick of The New York Times, for which reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis called the film a "jaunty, jovial portrait with a surprising sting in its tail". Catsoulis also called the development of Randi and Alvarez's legal problems to be "moving".

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a grade of "B", praising Weinstein and Measom's directorial style. Though Roeper thought that the film lost some momentum when exploring the minutiae of the Washington University hoax, and found the shift in focus of the last third of the film to the matter of Jose Alvarez's identity jarring, Roeper stated that Randi deserves a standing ovation for his work, and called the film "an honest portrait" of him.

Awards