Jeremiah “Terminator” LeRoy was a manufactured commodity, the wispy offspring of a prostitute mother that writer Laura Albert (Laura Dern) bamboozled the world into believing was real. Albert gave birth to JT by granting sotto voce phone interviews under the guise of her literary persona. Once her creation perched atop the best sellers list, the growing number of requests for personal appearances convinced Albert the time was right to invite her boyfriend’s sister Savannah (Kristen Stewart) to act the part of reclusive scribe. I was willing to go with Sav and Laura, but their alter-egos were not to be believed. Seeing Stewart buried beneath oversize Iris Apfel shades, a Zorro fedora, and Walgreens wig, makes it hard to accept that even the most ardent fan couldn’t see through JT’s bid at forced androgyny. And as JT’s manager “Speedie,” obnoxious Albert chose to hide behind a strained cockney impersonation, pitched just slightly higher than Bert’s in Mary Poppins. Sav cops to a fear of not having enough going on in her personal life to successfully pull off the impersonation; perhaps that accounts for all the time Stewart spends gazing at her shoes to avoid making eye contact. The story unfolded within that last 20 years; surely modern media people weren’t dopey enough to buy into this marketing masquerade? One Google search later proved me wrong. As conceived by writer-director Justin Kelly, Dern and Stewart deliver spot-on impersonations of otherwise resistible characters. (Available on Blu-Ray and VOD.) (2018) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.