Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Starring Jerry As Himself has to be one of the most intriguing quasi-docs in a while. The film, a reenactment of real events with documentary roots, opens with Jerry C. Hsu (playing himself, obviously) calling his three sons and ex-wife to dinner. Jesse (Jesse Hsu), and youngest brother Joshua (Joshua Hsu) get to their mother’s pristine Orlando McMansion and are greeted by the woman herself Kathy (Kathy Hsu). Meanwhile, middle son Jonathan (Jonathan Hsu) arrives at Jerry’s humble bachelor pad to ready for dinner and Jerry’s big announcement. The five sit at a round table in a Floridian Chinese restaurant and Jerry makes a painful revelation that will change their lives. Writer-director Law Chen with the assistance of his subject Jerry, creates an enthralling film based on real events, starring the folks that lived it, that blurs the lines of classification. The result is a riveting docudrama/cautionary tale that takes viewers on one hell of a ride.

We start at the beginning. Jerry was a ham. Acting in church plays Jerry always had a thing for the spotlight. Now retired in Orlando, Jerry makes ends meet by delivering food. His existence is pretty mundane. That is until Inspector Ou (Fang Du) calls from China. It seems that Jerry is being accused by the Chinese government of some sort of financial espionage. Jerry has been a good, hardworking American immigrant all of his life. His singular goal was to provide for his wife and children with the hope of a secure future. Now the Chinese government is ready to extradite him and lock him up unless he fully complies.  Yes. It’s what you think it is. Poor Jerry has been strung along until he has squandered all of his life savings in the hopes of clearing his name.

Luckily Jerry was responsible for creating a successful film producer and middle son Jonathan Hsu (A Wounded Fawn).  Following the revelation that Jerry has in fact been scammed, Hsu tapped writer-director Law Chen to adapt the family tragedy into a cautionary tale. Recruiting all involved, the film recreates the frightening experience that Jerry endured while being taken by ruthless phone scammers. Perfectly happy to drain the financial security of someone who worked for it, these thieves preyed upon Jerry’s elderly innocence and nearly destroyed the fortunes of an honest family.

Starring Jerry As Himself is a wildly entertaining movie, but it disturbs me a bit in that I don’t know what it is. Can we call it a documentary even though it is one big reenactment? How accurate are the staged scenes? To be clear it is noted that all dialogue with the scammers was transcribed, but really now we are getting into the weeds. I suppose that journalistic integrity isn’t so much the point as is conveying the dangers we all face against con artists. The takeaway here is that evil is out there. We should be proactive in taking care of those who took care of us.

Defying traditional genre confines, Starring Jerry As Himself is an absorbing cautionary tale.

7 out of 10