SF Indie Fest: The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things February 3, 2005

Our 7th Opening Night Gala kicks the 2005 Festival into overdrive with The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, a kinetic adaptation of local author J.T. LeRoy?s acclaimed autobiographical short story collection .

Provocative actor/director Asia Argento?s sophomore feature seethes with raw emotional power and rushes headlong into the surreal underbelly of America. She sears the screen with exploding meth-labs, truck stop tricks, skin-scrubbing preachers and medicated child molesters.

Young Jeremiah is pulled from his foster home and thrown into a troubled life on the road with his teenage mother, Sarah (played to gritty perfection by Argento) - a truck-stop hooker with a taste for pharmaceuticals.

Brilliant acting, a propulsive soundtrack by Sonic Youth and Marco Castoldi, and striking cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards (My Own PrivateIdaho, Kids) bring LeRoy?s world to life. Watch for cameos from Ornella Muti, Peter Fonda, Winona Ryder, Jeremy Sisto and Marilyn Manson.

- Bruce Fletcher