72
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnDirector Jeff Feuerzeig tracks Albert’s bizarre scheme in her own words, constructing a fascinating treatise on creative desire, internal grievances and fame as compelling as anything the writer herself dreamed up.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNew York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriThat Feuerzeig can navigate this hall of mirrors so cleanly and effectively is positively supernatural.
- 83The Film StageJohn FinkThe Film StageJohn FinkAuthor: The JT LeRoy Story is wildly entertaining and truly stranger than fiction.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEven when the film fails to ask so many of the questions its narrative begs, Author is still a tricky, fascinating look at the strange nexus of art, artifice, and the intoxicating cult of celebrity.
- 80The GuardianNigel M SmithThe GuardianNigel M SmithAuthor is less a run-through of one of the biggest controversies to plague the literary world in the past century, than an illuminating study of the enigmatic and driven woman behind the phenomenon.
- 80Total FilmMatt GlasbyTotal FilmMatt GlasbyThe result is so far-fetchedly entertaining it feels like a fantasist’s fevered imaginings. Which, in a way, it is.
- 60VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyWhatever literary talent Leroy was praised for shouldn’t have been so quickly forgotten and dismissed by those who’d once championed it. However, that praise was won under false pretenses — and while you can criticize Leroy fans for claiming to love the writing when they really fell in love with the myth it came packaged in, you can’t blame them for feeling ripped off.
- 60Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfDocumentary filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig turns a controversial literary hoax that fooled the world (and many a celebrity) into a tale of a private desperation but tidies it up too much.
- 50Slant MagazineMatt BrennanSlant MagazineMatt BrennanJeff Feuerzeig isn't skeptical enough of Laura Albert's explanations and rationalizations.