Of all the genres that the Tribeca Film Festival covers, it does the best job of showcasing and premiering top notch documentaries. Even though I’m not a massive fan of the category, I look forward to their selection every year because there are always multiple docs that end up being my favorite overall films of the entire festival. This year seems to be no different as I had a chance to screen Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom’s doc, An Honest Liar, and it was one of the most fascinating docs I’ve seen this year.
An Honest Liar chronicles the life of the popular magician, James “The Amazing” Randi, a man who started out as a magician over 50 years ago and who could escape any trap, entertaining audiences for years by explicitly telling them he was deceiving and lying to them. Not long after he saw people start to use trickery to make money, Randi shifted his mission from performing magic, focusing full-time on debunking con artists that use magic to swindle the masses rather than entertain them i.e. faith healers, fortune tellers, psychics and more. Cut with interviews from famed interviewees like Penn and Teller and Mythbusters’ Adam Savage, An Honest Liar focuses on The Amazing Randi’s most famous and best debunkings while also explaining to the audience that, no matter how smart you are, everyone is susceptible to deception.
Throughout the film we are introduced and get to know a handful of people. Firstly, we learn all about Randi, his wild background and how, for nearly all of his life, was a closet homosexual. That being said, for 25 years, he has lived with his partner Jose Alvarez, a man he randomly met in a library and soon hit off with him. Together, they would go on to perform the Carlos Hoax, an event in which Jose pretended to be a psychic in order to show just how stupid the media could be. Their goal was to show why the attention the media was giving to these “psychics” was absolutely ludicrous and how it easy it was to dupe the public to believe in these fakes. This event is what brought the two men close together, cementing the bond that would hold strong for many years to come and truly begin Randi’s quest to bust the schemers of the world.
Charismatic, highly intelligent, and simply a hoot to watch, The Amazing Randi is the type of subject you wish every doc would have. He’s full of great jokes, he’s brilliant, insightful, fearless and, most of all, a world class entertainer. It’s this combination of attributes that makes his story and his debunking missions so interesting. One such example of his character is the story regarding his battle with his rival and famed spoon-bender, Uri Geller, a man who he could prove wasn’t legitimate but that no one would accept as fact, even with proof. The story is woven throughout much of the film and we even get interviews with Uri himself, but to see a fierce man determined to expose liars and not come away victorious is interesting both from a anthropological and psychological perspective.
And what’s a movie about trickery without there being a bit of deception within the doc itself? I don’t plan on spoiling this unexpected twist, but rest assured that there is one and that it was an incredible stroke of luck for the filmmakers to still be filming after it happened.
Even if you don’t like magic, tricks or other types of illusions, trust me when I say you’ll still love An Honest Liar and the hilariously brilliant subject of the film, The Amazing Randi. Outside of his great personality and the cool tricks Randi’s able to pull off, the documentary is extremely intriguing thanks to a great combination of interviews and archival footage that take us inside Randi’s world of undercover spy missions, attempts to foil money-hungry schemers, and falsifying scientific research among other things. If you have an opportunity to see Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom’s film don’t miss out, I promise it’ll be one of the best decisions you make that day.
Rating: A fascinating documentary that manages the rare feat of being both incredibly funny and very insightful (8.8/10)
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