J.T. LeRoy

J.T. LeRoy (2019) is an American drama about a real literary hoax that you can watch online on iFILM. For years, Laura Albert (Laura Dern) wrote acclaimed books under an invented name: JT LeRoy, a damaged young transgender writer who supposedly lived every story. When the public demanded to meet him in the flesh, Albert sent out her sister-in-law, Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart), in a blond wig and dark glasses to play the part.

For six years Savannah became a man who never existed. Photo shoots, celebrity friends, a slow-burning bond with a filmmaker named Eva (Diane Kruger) — the line between the disguise and her own self keeps thinning. Meanwhile Laura clings to a creation that has long outgrown her.

Director Justin Kelly adapts Knoop's own memoir about one of the strangest literary cons of the 2000s. The real draw is the Stewart–Dern pairing and a question the film refuses to settle: who was using whom. Made for anyone pulled toward stories about authenticity, masks and the price of borrowing someone else's name. Stream J.T. LeRoy (2019) online on iFILM.