Film Review: A Magician Debunks the Paranormal in Beguiling Doc ‘An Honest Liar’

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CHICAGO – Magician James Randi, or “The Amazing Randi,” has a made a legacy in using his love of magic to show audiences how they’re being tricked by evangelists, spoon-benders, psychics, etc. A ruthlessly charming Houdini-wannabe with instant showman charisma, he exists as the humbling gravity to a world that can convince itself that unattainable answers are to be found in ideas beyond science. When someone claims that they’re able to talk to spirits from over 35,000 years ago, or can push a pen with extreme focus and the wave of their hand, Randi shows up at the scene, and throws down with logic at his side. It often happens on the stage of talk shows, whether it’s Johnny Carson or Larry King, and it’s glorious. He never loses. In a world where a sucker is indeed born every minute, he’s a hero as much as he is a necessity.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

While not the first film to be amazed by Randi, this documentary from Tyler Measom & Justin Weinstein opening at the Music Box Theater this weekend provides a broad overview of his career, touching upon his unique celebrity, and also his private life. Broken into greatest hits chapters and bouncing around in time, the film goes wide not deep when exploring a man who started off wanting to be Houdini’s descendent, but then factored those skills into a crucial intellectual movement. Capturing him in his sprightly 80s, the movie aptly presents his different life roles, as magician, skeptic, and loving, closeted partner to artist Jose Alvarez.

Undoubtedly, Randi is a great subject for a documentary film, or even a narrative one, hopefully someday. Dealing with an existence that resides entirely in the stranger-than-fiction, his supporting cast is an odd lot of characters. To see many of them speaking in this film, from the two young men that Randi had play psychic for months, to spoon-bending nemesis Uri Geller, is a geeky joy. Their episodes are fascinating tales on the fringe of kitschy scientific lunacy. With his unimposing tininess and white beard to contrast his razor-sharp wit, Randi’s life is a treasure trove of weird cultural movements, providing the brief bits of sense into the fascinations behind Peter Popoff (who still shills miracle water today), or Geller (who still claims to bend junk with his mind today).

Continue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “An Honest Liar”

‘An Honest Liar’
Photo credit: Abramorama

Continue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “An Honest Liar”