It's 2001 San Francisco. Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart) visits her brother Geoffrey Knoop (Jim Sturgess) and his wife Laura (Laura Dern). Laura writes the novel Sarah under the pen name JT LeRoy with a picture from a thrift store. It's a fictional biography of a nameless abused boy whose mother Sarah is a prostitute in West Virginia. Laura has been giving a voice to JT on the phone and now she wants to use Savannah as the physical presentation of the boy. Laura pretends to be JT's British assistant who controls his every move. Eva (Diane Kruger) is a fan taken with the mysterious JT.

I'm getting a little tired of Kristen Stewart's intense reticent. She keeps doing the same moves. Savy is not the most compelling protagonist in this story anyways. This really has to be Laura's story. The only way to place her concluding speech in any context is to show her life. Savy doesn't seem to have agency at the beginning. It doesn't make her that compelling until she starts taking charge of herself. Whenever Eva comments on their phone calls, I keep thinking that the phone calls should be done on camera. Savy is the second or third most interesting character in her own story. It's an interesting story nevertheless.

Laura Albert (Laura Dern) is an author who created a fictional autobiography writing under the name of JT LeRoy. JT's mother was a truckstop hooker. Since male customers didn't like boys being around, his mother would dress him up as a girl. Laura lives in San Francisco with Geoff (Jim Sturgess) who writes music for the band "Twist & Scream." Laura does the lyrics. When Geoff's sister Savannah (Kristen Stewart) comes out to live with them, Laura gets the idea of using her to be the face of JT whom no one has ever seen. What starts off as a single photo for a magazine becomes a whole persona for Savannah who becomes addicted to playing the role.

I lived during this era and don't recall any of this...and I watch all the movies about truckstop hookers I can locate. However, I stopped watching E! in the 1990s as well as MTV when they started to play rap. So I could have missed it. Kristen Stewart played a moody person who doesn't show emotion, her typecast...not as good as Snow White when she played dead but close.

Guide: F-word, ex, brief Kristen Stewart nudity.

I knew nothing of this tale, but am aware that literary license allows for all forms of fantastical creations including interesting pseudonyms. Not sure if it's better to look up the history of this true story before or wait 'till after watching. One cannot know all, but it appears to be a somewhat accurate accounting. Great acting. Worth reading the background & then watching again.