My Psychedelic Love Story

A major failure by the great documentarian Errol Morris about the recently deceased Joanna Harcourt-Smith. She was the girlfriend of Timothy Leary who, when he escaped prison, joined him on his globetrotting romp to keep ahead of the police. Morris makes a classic error, since he's talking a lot of about LSD, and other psychedelics, he thinks it adds to the experience to keep having "trippy" images constantly mixed into the the story. So photographs swirl and expand and displayed text also bubbles up and just gives you a headache. "Like I'm too high, man." I made it through about 12 minutes.

He certainly still gets credit in the media . This documentary however is about Johanna and her perspective and experience. I find her to be a very credible reporter of her experience and it's refreshing and kept me watching. While the content is less interesting and the information is of course from her experience, her account is what what held my interest and was at times riveting as it unfurled.

I was hoping for a little more Timothy Leary to be honest but was treated to the unrelenting self-obsession of this woman. To be fair, I think this filled in some of the blanks (in my mind) about Leary (This confirmed my memory - that he wasted his potential - he was simply a hedonist). You don't need this account to come to this conclusion, but her account is sometimes gripping - her wealth, access to famous people, etc. Always must be in on the action, must not be bored! One wishes for some humility, some wisdom - if just for the sake of the children/grandchildren she left behind. One also wishes there were some attempt to fact check. I don't believe a Freedom of information request was made - just a lame statement to the effect that the CIA was unable to verify any documents (something no agency would do, I don't believe).

This woman seems to be on LSD throughout the entire 15 minutes I was able to sit through.

If she could bottle her ego - she'd be the richest woman in the world.

I couldn't see one more photo of Timothy L.eary learing at the cameras with that strange smile.

And her dancing hither and thither and also wearing a strange smile and name dropping all over the place.

We get it - you were wonderful. Now I have a good book to read.

Tho one woman's perspective , her woman's retelling of these events feel credible. This is why I give this documentary a 7 . While the content is interesting and it's not necessarily information, but it is her version of events . considering Timothy Larry became the face of lsd he was more of a popstar not an original writer. What kept me watching is her version of events and her believability-it's her experience. Is also frustrating to further see how his behavior negated much of the would be research and use of lsd , setting us back a lifetime for its uses and research. Just my 2 cents