Movie: An Honest Liar

Netflix documentary on the life of "The Amazing" James Randi, aka Randall James Hamilton Zwinge. I knew he was a former magician and escape artist, I knew he'd dedicated his life to debunking trickery, I knew he was gay. I knew he'd hidden his orientation all his life, until quite recently.

I did not know he'd had a partner, Jose Alvarez (who is much younger than him) for 25 years.

I did not know that "Jose Alvarez" had a secret of his own --that he was not Jose Alvarez.

Fascinating, Captain.

One line in the film made my ears prick up. One of the magicians interviewed for the film was talking about Randi's motivation, in exposing faith healers and spoon benders, and how Randi was disappointed that no matter how many fraudsters he exposed the world still flocked to every charlatan with a pitch.

He said, something like, but then there are millions of people the world over who believe in god so what can you do.

It was the only expression of atheism in the film -- though Randi is known as a Strong Atheist -- and one of the few equations of organized religion to charlatanism I've ever heard in public media.