The Amazing Johnathan Documentary

As a device for a film it's interesting to a point -- but it didn't fully work its magic on me.

The Amazing Johnathan Documentary starts as a blast but as the journey progresses, becomes ever more slippery: Is Szeles tricking Berman? Is Berman bamboozling us? The answer is entertaining and frustrating in equal measures.

It's compelling stuff: funny, moving and, yes, often amazing. Johnathan is a slippery subject, but in Berman he has a committed chronicler, who is even prepared to smoke meth with him on camera.

A daft, dazzling exercise in reflexivity, albeit a somewhat familiar one.

It's an enjoyable, dizzying spiral of a story...

For 91 tiring minutes, director Ben Berman sort of tells a story that is sort of interesting but maybe not really, padding the film with selfie footage of his own chaotic production problems.

Learning more about Berman's childhood and problems faced completing the documentary just isn't that interesting, and once you see through the illusion, the magic quickly starts to fade.

[The Amazing Johnathan Documentary] provides a fascinating look at art, perception and the nature of truth.

A cursory tale that it's well worth planning things in advance as much as possible, this is a gnat's breath away from being a complete disaster, but is saved by a first-time director's naive faith it will all be saved in the edit.

Neither filmmaker nor subject comes out particularly well here, but the battle of wills that ensues takes the film in some entertainingly oddball directions.