Starring Jerry as Himself review: A vital genre-bending documentary experiment

Starring Jerry as Himself, starts off with a disproportionately familiar snapshot of the titular, retired Florida resident who receives a strange phone call one day from the Chinese police. Just as one gets a little too close to dismiss the predictable route of Starring Jerry as Himself, the startling film by debutant director Law Chen which premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, it shifts ground towards a baffling route that leaves you off balance. Groundbreaking in its transparency, Starring Jerry as Himself cleverly avoids feeding onto genre elements to push the boundaries of the storytelling format. Yet, it is in the final few minutes of Starring Jerry as Himself, when the film finally reaches its shocking denouement to break the carefully constructed wall with the audience.