The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

The jig is up on literary hoaxer “J.T. LeRoy,” whose “memoirs” of a screwed-up boyhood were recently revealed to be the invention of a middle-aged woman. But this sucker-punch of a film, based upon Leroy's writings, is still horrifyingly effective, even with its hyperbolic cartoonishness. Directed by actor-filmmaker Asia Argento, daughter-protégé of horrormeister Dario, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things takes Leroy's so-ridiculous-it-must-be-invented tale of childhood sexual and psychological abuse and physical neglect and turns it into a nightmarish funhouse ride through the darkest, sickest aspects of American culture. Argento casts herself as a devil named Sarah, a demented mother who kidnaps her son Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett as a seven-year-old, with twins Dylan and Cole Sprouse playing him as an 11-year-old) out of a loving foster home only to emotionally torture him. Sarah is, of course, a caricature of evil (but so are Freddy and Jason), yet this isn't one of those horror movies that will make you laugh as easily as it makes you flinch. In fact, plenty will find the unrelenting depiction of child abuse here unwatchable, but those who can stomach it are also likely to find this to be one of the most disturbingly scary films they've ever seen. Recommended. (M. Johanson)