“Truth is stranger than fiction” as Mark Twain famously said, and the documentary format seems to be the one proving the proverb every chance filmmakers get. “Starring Jerry as Himself”, which is also literally what happens in the movie, is a type of hybrid movie that is very difficult to classify, since not even the mockumentary title is enough in this case. Why? Because it is a film talking about what happened to Jerry, who happens to be producer John Hsu’s father, in a format that points more towards a feature movie, but also acted by real members of the particular family, including Jerry and John. The movie premiered in Slamdance, where it got the Grand Jury Prize (Best Documentary Feature), Audience Award, Acting Award and is now screening in Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.
Jerry is a retired, divorced Taiwanese immigrant in Orlando, who has been living like a poor man all his life, trying to save money any way he can. One day, he gets an urgent call from the Chinese police, who inform him that he is the prime suspect in an international money laundering investigation. Under the threat of extradition to China, the police force him to cooperate and become an undercover agent in their case. Jerry is worried at first but eventually starts enjoying the whole thing, which he keeps a secret from his three sons and his ex-wife. After months of this endeavor, he decides to finally reveal everything to his family, with his sons, with the help of director Law Chen, eventually deciding to make a film out of the whole ordeal.
Evidently, the borders between fiction and documentary are quite thin here, as Chen is essentially shooting something that looks like a spy movie, but retaining the reality factor by having the actual people involved in the case as his actors, with the exception of the banker and the the policemen, who are actually played by real actors. The result is difficult to classify (in our interview, the director mentioned that two separate programming teams in Slamdance picked it both in the documentary and the fiction section) but also quite intriguing and entertaining.
The first element that draws attention is the whole case of how Jerry ends up being an undercover agent, with the flashback approach Chen implements working excellently here while highlighting the outstanding job done in the editing of the movie. Seeing an old man forced to become an undercover agent, secretly taking photographs and recording conversations is a joy in itself, but the fact that you know that the actor is the actual person in the case, makes the whole endeavor even more intriguing.
Even more so, and this is the second big trait of the movie, since Jerry Hsu, seems to have been ready to become an actor for years, with his meta performance being on the caliber of a veteran, and definitely not one of a first time actor. Even more impressive is that his ex-wife, Kathy Hsu, is also a star (in the making) with her flamboyance and overall demeanor filling the screen in the most amusing way every time she appears in it. The level of entertainment the two offer is truly high, to the point that it is very difficult to believe that this is how they actually are in real life, in an element that adds even more to the meta approach here.
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Lastly, Law Chen and Tinx Chan’s cinematography captures all the aforementioned with an approach that lingers between documentary and fiction, in perfect resonance with the movie’s overall aesthetics.
“Starring Jerry as Himself” is a true gem of a film, a movie that is as original as it is entertaining, and one that I feel every type of audience will enjoy.
