Starring Jerry as Himself

3/19/2025

I’m all one for experimental cinema, but, in the end, the experiment has to work. Unfortunately, however, that’s where this debut feature from writer-director Law Chen (primarily the creator of film shorts and music videos) sorely misses the mark. Based on a true story whose very soundness is somewhat called into question (as demonstrably observed in the picture’s opening credits), this “fictionalized documentary” about retiree Jerry Liu (portrayed here by his real-life counterpart, amateur actor-writer Jerry Hsu) tells the story of how this hard-working but naïve Chinese immigrant living in Orlando was scammed out of his life savings by conmen posing as police officers from Shanghai investigating a supposed international money laundering scheme. The twist here, though, is how this regrett