AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY. (2016) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY. (2016) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JEFF FEUERZEIG. MUSIC BY WALTER WERZOWA. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY RICHARD HENKELS.

STARRING LAURA ALBERT, BRUCE BENDERSON, DENNIS COOPER, PANIO GIANOPOULOS, WINONA RYDER, ASIA ARGENTO, BILLY CORGAN AND IRA SILVERBERG AS THEMSELVES.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

THIS REVIEWRE-POSTED IN JANUARY 2023.

A note from the author, Sandra Harris: Hi guys, I’m re-posting this review which I penned last September 2016 because, last night, something rather wonderful happened to me. I turned up at the Irish Film Institute here in Dublin to see acclaimed writer Laura Albert talk about her work after a special screening of AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY, and see Laura I most certainly did.

We met quite by accident in the Ladies’ Toilet, yet another occasion on which I’m thrilled and infinitely thankful to have been born female, haha. She’s absolutely beautiful to look at, with a wicked…

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THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS. (2004) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS. (2004) DIRECTED BY ASIA ARGENTO. BASED ON THE 2001 BOOK OF THE SAME NAME BY JT LEROY.

STARRING ASIA ARGENTO, DYLAN AND COLE SPROUSE, JIMMY BENNETT, MARILYN MANSON, PETER FONDA AND ORNELLA MUTI.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ Jeremiah 17.9

Oh, wowee-wow. This is a hard film to watch, as is any film with sustained child abuse in it. The book, along with two others, were supposedly autobiographical novels written by teenage boy author sensation, JT LeRoy.

About halfway through the ‘Noughties, however, the whole JT LeRoy thing was revealed to be both fraudulent and JT himself the relative-in-law of Laura Albert, the real writer of the books.

Ms. Albert is actually a lovely, open and friendly woman whom I met when she came to Dublin about five or…

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LADY’S CHATTERLEY’S LOVER. (2022)

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DIRECTED BY LAURE DE CLERMONT-TONNERRE.

STARRING EMMA CORRIN, JACK O’CONNELL, MATTHEW DUCKETT AND JOELY RICHARDSON.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

Who doesn’t love a story like this, in which a rich toff lady gets with a nice hairy bit of rough, who’s got good garden soil under his fingernails and fire and a nice pork pie in his belly? LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER is one such story.

Emma Corrin plays the titular Lady C., or Constance ‘Connie’ Reid, the gorgeous young brunette who marries Baronet Clifford Chatterley, who in turn owns a huge bit of real estate in the countryside called-you guessed it- Chatterley.

Anyway, Connie and Clifford manage to consummate their marriage the night before Clifford goes off to fight World War One, and presumably write a shit-tonne of war poems as well, lol, as was the style of the time. When he returns, he’s an impotent as a Nevada…

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THIRD MONDAY: A POEM BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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THIRD MONDAY.

A POEM BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I’m on my local street

And it’s raining

It’s the second Monday in January

Not even the third one

The one that everyone calls

The most depressing day of the year

That’s next Monday;

I just seem to be having mine

A little early

That’s all

I’m wet and my back hurts

From humping these shopping bags around

And I’ve a mountain of worries

Stored up in my head

For careful use throughout the coming year

I’m starting to categorize them singly

Fearful of losing one

Of letting one fall in the gutter

And roll away down the street like a frisbee

When a one-legged man

Whizzes past me in a wheelchair

His aura trailing behind him

Like a birthday party banner

So I can read it clearly

‘Count yer blessings, love,’

It calls to me

‘’Cause yeh never know the day…

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THE APOLOGY. (2022) A SHUDDER CHRISTMAS HORROR FILM REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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THE APOLOGY. (2022) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALISON LOCKE.

STARRING ANNA GUNN, LINUS ROACHE AND JANEANE GAROFALO.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I loved this Christmas horror movie, which is streaming now on Shudder. Darlene Hagen is played by Anna Gunn, who seems to be most popular for her role on BREAKING BAD. I admit I never watched BREAKING BAD. It came too soon after THE SOPRANOS for me to be ready to welcome another series into my life. Who am I kidding? It’s still too soon for me.

Anyway, Darlene is a recovering alcoholic whose teenage daughter Sally went missing about twenty years ago and was never seen again. Darlene, after having been to hell and back during these twenty years, finally feels ready to host Christmas for her family again.

She’s no longer married, so it’ll be her sister and her kids coming for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Darlene’s…

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THE EMERALD FOREST. (1985) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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THE EMERALD FOREST. (1985) DIRECTED AND CO-PRODUCED BY JOHN BOORMAN. WRITTEN BY ROSPO PALLENBERG.

STARRING CHARLEY BOORMAN, POWERS BOOTHE, MEG FOSTER AND DIRA PAES.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I love this film. Charley Boorman, son of director John Boorman who made DELIVERANCE, is phenomenally good as Tommy/Tomme, the white boy who is kidnapped by a native tribe of the Brazilian Rainforest and brought up by them as a member of their tribe, the Invisible People.

Why was little Tommy in Brazil in the first place? Well, because his dad Bill Markham, played by the sexy and gorgeous Powers Boothe, is the engineer building a massive dam there that involves the gradual erosion of the Rainforest; the gradual erosion, by extension, of the homes of the one or two indigenous tribes that still live there.

The edge of the world used to be so far away when we were…

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FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF. (1986) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF. (1986) WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND CO-PRODUCED BY JOHN HUGHES.

STARRING MATTHEW BRODERICK, ALAN RUCK, MIA SARA, JENNIFER GREY, JEFFREY JONES, EDIE MCCLURG, CINDY PICKETT, LYMAN WARD AND CHARLIE SHEEN.

MUSIC BY IRA NEWBORN.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

There are two schools of thought regarding this American teen comedy, made by the man who also brought us SIXTEEN CANDLES, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, PRETTY IN PINK, UNCLE BUCK, HOME ALONE and BEETHOVEN (the dog, not the famous musician!).

John Hughes was one hell of a film-maker, and, had he not died of a heart attack in 2009, no doubt he’d still be making movies today. He brought fame and fortune to the young actors and actresses of the so-called Brat Pack, chief of whom was his own personal muse, the fabulous Molly Ringwald.

Anyway, to return to those two schools of thought? The first one puts the case…

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MARIE ANTOINETTE. (2006) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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MARIE ANTOINETTE. (2006) DIRECTED BY SOFIA COPPOLA. SCREENPLAY BY SOFIA COPPOLA. BASED ON THE BIOGRAPHY, ‘MARIE-ANTOINETTE: THE JOURNEY,’ BY ANTONIA FRASER.

STARRING KIRSTEN DUNST, ASIA ARGENTO, RIP TORN, JASON SCHWARTZMAN AND STEVE COOGAN.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

Humph. Clearly, I’m in the wrong business. As a struggling writer, no-one ever feeds me delightfully coloured-and-flovoured macaroons from a charming china plate or sends me shoes and dresses one could literally imagine dying for.

That’s because I’m not the bleedin’ Queen of France, lol. And, in some ways, of course, I’m glad I’m not, because I get to keep my head on my shoulders. On the other hand, I’ve never lived as deliciously as Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis the Sixteenth of France…

Kirsten INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Dunst- she plays Claudia- does a fabulous job as Marie Antoinette of France, who starts life as Marie Antonia, the youngest daughter of…

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STILL CRAZY. (1998) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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STILL CRAZY. (1998) DIRECTED BY BRIAN GIBSON. WRITTEN BY DICK CLEMENT AND IAN LE FRENAIS.

STARRING BILL NIGHY, JULIET AUBREY, HELENA BERGSTROM, BILLY CONNOLLY, JIMMY NAIL, SPEPHEN REA, TIMOTHY SPALL, BRUCE ROBINSON, HANS MATHESON, RACHEL STIRLING, PHIL DANIELS, FRANCES BARBER, AND ZOE BALL AND DONNA AIR AS THEMSELVES.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

Astrid: Just give them your credit card number.

Ray, wailing: But I don’t know my credit card number…!

Astrid: It’s on your credit card, Ray…

I bloody love this film. It’s a rock-and-roll comedy spoof about a fictitious ‘Seventies rock band who get the chance to relive their glory days once more and take a second stab at their last concert, which ended badly and in a nightmare of hostility and acrimony between the band members.

An ex of mine introduced me to it in the early 2000s, one of the few truly decent things he ever…

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THE FINAL CHAPTER OF DR. CHEKHOV. (1990) THE MICHAEL ARMSTRONG SCREENPLAY REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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MICHAEL ARMSTRONG: THE SCREENPLAYS.

THE FINAL CHAPTER OF DR. CHEKHOV. (1990)

PUBLISHED IN 2022 BY PAPER DRAGON PRODUCTIONS.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

‘Michael Armstrong is creating history by being the first film-maker to publish his entire screenwriting output. With the original uncut screenplays in print for the first time ever and peppered with a mixture of wildly entertaining anecdotes, astounding behind-the-scenes revelations, creative and educational insights and brutal ‘no holds barred’ honesty, these books are guaranteed to provide a completely new kind of reading experience while offering a unique insight into the movie industry. Starting from his first professional screenplay written in 1960 when he was only fifteen and which he subsequently directed in 1968, the books will ultimately encompass a career that has spanned over fifty years. The books will include not only those screenplays which made it onto a cinema screen but, for the first time ever…

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