''An Honest Liar'' is a 2014 biographical
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
documentary, directed and produced by Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom, written by Weinstein, Greg O'Toole and Measom, produced through Left Turn Films, Pure Mutt Productions and Part2 Filmworks, and distributed by Abramorama. The film documents the life of former magician, escape artist, and skeptical educator
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific cla ...
, in particular the investigations through which he publicly exposed psychics,
faith healers, and con-artists. The film also focuses on Randi's relationship with his partner of 25 years, José Alvarez, who at the time of filming, had been discovered to be living under a false identity, calling into question "whether Randi was the deceiver or the deceived."
["An Honest Liar"]
Yahoo! Movies
Yahoo! Movies (formerly Upcoming Movies), provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yaho ...
. Retrieved September 5, 2014.["An Honest Liar (2014)"]
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
The film was screened at a number of 2014
film festival
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...
s, including the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...
,
Hot Docs, and
AFI Docs Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature. It was released in February 2015.
Cast
*
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific cla ...
– A retired
stage magician and
escape artist
Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists (also classified as escape artists) escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks, and oth ...
, turned
scientific skeptic
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
investigator
known for his public exposés of faith healers, psychics, and other promoters of
pseudoscientific and
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
claims.
The film focuses on his life as an investigator, and his relationship with his long-time boyfriend and later husband, José Alvarez.
*
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
– A
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
singer/songwriter
who hired magician James Randi to design and coordinate the effects for his 1973 ''
Billion Dollar Babies
''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on t ...
'' tour. Randi also appeared in the stage show as The Executioner, and would end each show by decapitating Cooper.
[Pevere, Geoff (August 8, 2014)]
"An Honest Liar: An expose of trickery"
''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''.
*
Bill Nye –
Science educator and host of the Disney/PBS children's science show ''
Bill Nye the Science Guy''
*
Adam Savage
Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of the Discovery Channel televisi ...
–
Industrial design and
special effects designer/fabricator, and one of the co-hosts of the
Discovery Channel television series ''
MythBusters'' and ''
Unchained Reaction''
*
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.
The duo h ...
– American
illusionists and entertainers
*
Michael Shermer
Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of ''Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientifi ...
– Science writer, historian of science, founder of
The Skeptics Society
The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. The Skeptics Society was co-founded by Michael S ...
, and Editor in Chief of its magazine
''Skeptic''
* Deyvi Peña (a.k.a. José Alvarez) – Performance artist who posed as a channeller known as "Carlos" on Australian television, in a hoax arranged by Randi. He was also Randi's live-in boyfriend of 25 years, and the two were married in 2013. Following legal action involving allegations of identity theft, "José Alvarez's" real name was revealed to be Deyvi Peña.
[
* ]Richard Wiseman
Richard J. Wiseman (born 17 September 1966) is a Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. He has written several psychology books. He has given keynote addresses to The Royal ...
– Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
at the University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
* Jamy Ian Swiss
Jamy Ian Swiss (born November 30, 1952, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American magician, author, speaker, historian of magic, essayist, book reviewer, and scientific skeptic. He is known for sleight-of-hand with playing cards.
Magic
Swiss is ...
– Close-up magician who works primarily with cards
* Ray Hyman
Ray Hyman (born June 23, 1928) is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and a noted critic of parapsychology. Hyman, along with James Randi, Martin Gardner and Paul Kurtz, is one of the founders of the ...
– Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
in Eugene, Oregon, and a noted critic of parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
* Steve Shaw – Mentalist known by the stage name Banachek,[ who posed as a psychic in a paranormal research project at ]Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
* Michael Edwards – Actor who posed as a psychic in a paranormal research project at Washington University in St. Louis[
* ]Uri Geller
Uri Geller ( ; he, אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other i ...
– Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i illusionist, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...
, known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending
Spoon bending is the deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, purportedly by paranormal means. It is a common theme for magic tricks, which use a variety of methods to produce the effect. Performers commonly use misdirection to draw t ...
and other supposed psychic effects. Geller famously failed to perform his feats under controlled conditions during a 1973 appearance on ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, 1 ...
'', after Randi supervised the staff of that program on the proper handling of the materials used in the performance to prevent cheating.
Synopsis
''An Honest Liar'' documents James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific cla ...
's early life as a carnival-bound refugee from Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
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
Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...
.
Age and concerns over the danger of his profession and his health leads 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
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
investigator and challenger to pseudoscientific and paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
claims, which leads him to expose the deceit behind religious faith healers
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...
, psychics, and other con artists who exploit the public. Randi becomes a recurring guest on ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, 1 ...
'', and makes appearances on TV shows such as ''Happy Days
''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...
'' and in rock music artist Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
's 1973 ''Billion Dollar Babies
''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on t ...
'' tour, where Randi, portraying the Executioner, 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
Uri Geller ( ; he, אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other i ...
, who performed psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...
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. 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
Peter George Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born American televangelist and debunked clairvoyant and faith healer. He was exposed in 1986 for using a concealed earpiece to receive radio messages from his wife, who gave him the names, ad ...
, 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
Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 91,750. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the E ...
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
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
from 3,096 backers, $98,989 more than its goal of $148,000.["An Honest Liar: The Amazing Randi Story"]
Kickstarter. Retrieved September 5, 2014. 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.][Rooney, David (June 30, 2014)]
"'An Honest Liar': Provincetown Review"
''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
''. It is distributed by Abramorama.[
]
Reception and release
Release
''An Honest Liar'' was screened at the April 2014 Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...
. 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
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...
and Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature.[ Its wide releases was March 6, 2015.][Catsoulis, Jeannette (March 5, 2015)]
"Review: 'An Honest Liar,' a Documentary About the Debunker James Randi"
''The New York Times''.
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 98% score on the review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 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
Geoff Pevere (born October 1957) is a Canadian lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto.John Semley, "Can we play with madness?: Toronto' ...
, reviewing the film for ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', 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
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'', 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
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' 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 José Alvarez's identity jarring, Roeper stated that Randi deserves a standing ovation for his work, and called the film "an honest portrait" of him.[ Roeper, Richard (2015)]
"An Honest Liar (2015)"
Richard Roeper & The Movies. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
Awards
* Audience Award for Best Feature, 2014 AFI Docs Festival[
]
References
External links
*
*
"An Honest Liar"
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
.
* Higginbotham, Adam (November 7, 2014)
"The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honest Liar, An
2014 films
2014 documentary films
American documentary films
Documentary films about entertainers
Documentary films about LGBT topics
Films about magic and magicians
Scientific skepticism mass media
2014 LGBT-related films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films