An Honest Liar

"No matter how smart and well-educated you are, you can be deceived," says James Randi in "An Honest Liar." He should know. This illusionist, author and professional de-mytifier was able to take down some very charismatic and wealthy charlatans.

"The Amazing Randi," as he is called, had a substantial career as a magician and escape artist. He was inspired by the work of Harry Houdini, not only as a performer but also as a man who championed the destruction of the snake oil salesmen.

There came a point in Randi's career when he got tired of watching psychics, televangelists and faith healers pronounce to the world that they had special powers which were actually nothing more than simple sleight of hand tricks. He set out to set the world straight by educating the public in very popular forums, such as the highly-rated "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson."

But we are told early on that even as Randi unmasked some of the most celebrated con artists, he himself was deceiving the pubic and the United States government, in a pretty severe manner.

Randi's first secret is no big deal. He's gay, and he hasn't been upfront about that fact. In truth, he never really came out of the closet until 2010, when he was 81 years-old. By this time he had been living with a man for over 20 years, Jose Alvarez, a Venezuelan artist whom Randi first enlisted to help him pull off a calculated scam.

Randi made Alvarez into a sham guru called Carlos. A number of celebrated swindlers had convinced the media that they were communing with spirits from the past, great warriors that had been dead for centuries and the like. Alvarez's persona Carlos proved to the media how easy it was for a huckster to defraud them, even though "preventative measures" had been put in place.

Screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs and the AFI Docs Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature, "An Honest Liar" tracks some of The Amazing Randi's greatest successes, like the way that he was able to discover the secrets of the psychic Uri Geller and prevent the popular telekinetic from prophesying on a television show. And even more impressive, Randi and a private detective were able to infiltrate one of the faith healer Peter Popoff's revivals.

With the PI disguised as a security guard and Randi pretending to be a documentary filmmaker named Adam Jersin (an anagram for James Randi), the master skeptic made behind-the-scenes recordings of Popoff's wife pulling a fast one on the sick and infirmed. This scam was making the couple "millions of dollars" per month -- until Randi exposed them.

Through interviews with Adam Savage, Penn & Teller, Bill Nye, Alice Cooper (yes, you read that right) and others, we see James Randi as one who promotes a scientific world view and champions truth -- right up to the day the FBI secures his property and shows up at his door.

The Amazing Randi had been lauded for years for conniving the deceitful, but one of his deceptions may have come back to haunt him in a life altering way.

Using historical footage and interviews, directors Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein take us on a duplicitous journey, even convincing us at one point that they themselves have betrayed their subject in the interest of "full truth." We see that Uri Geller and Peter Popoff went on to have successful careers in spite of Randi's truths. And the magician himself says that the public will believe almost anything if they see it on television or in the form of a documentary. So who here is really telling the truth in this biographic detective story? And how much does "the truth" matter?

"An Honest Liar" opens in select markets March 6. For more information please visit anhonestliar.com/wp/.