An Honest Liar (2014)

Bio-doc about James Randi, otherwise known as 'The Amazing Randi', a Canadian born magician and escape artist and hero of the skeptic movement. Born in 1928 Randi began his career as an escape artist and magician in 1946, and became something of a Television regular by the mid 1950's, he was a favorite guest and personal friend of Johnny Carson's, collaborated with Alice Cooper of all people, appeared as himself on an episode of Happy Days, and did a lot of children's television and talk shows. After more or less retiring from serious escape work, though he will still perform some of his magic tricks, Randi became a kind of investigative journalist in the debunking of fantastical claims. Randi wrote books and appeared on television in this capacity, and is noted for the debunking of then claimed psychic Uri Geller, and the faith healer Peter Popoff, among others. James Randi is also a homosexual, and kept this as something of an open secret until officially coming out of the closet in 2010. Randi married his long time partner the artist Jose Alvarez in 2013, and that relationship, well you need to watch the movie on that. A very strong production about a very interesting man, which will probably surprise you in ways you are not expecting. ***1/2