I’m going to attempt to convince you to watch An Honest Liar without revealing any important plot twists or lying to you about what makes it incredible.

An Honest Liar is intrinsically about the nature of deception. It tells the story of a famous magician, the Amazing Randi, and his life-long quest to expose the lies of famous charlatans. It’s also about the ways we deceive ourselves, and ultimately, it uncovers how we want to believe the lies presented to us.

The first act of the film follows the early life and professional triumphs of Canadian illusionist, magician, escape artist, and all-around liar James Randi. Many people considered Randi to be the successor of Houdini and he built a career for himself by emulating and recreating many of the master’s famous stunts. He was a regular guest on all the popular 20th century talk shows and toured the nation.

Eventually, it wasn’t enough for The Amazing Randi to just be a master magician. He wanted to use everything he knew as an illusionist and showman (and all-around skeptic) to disprove the lies of religious, spiritual, and psychic charlatans. Randi has no issue with performers who present their tricks as pure entertainment. Hence, the title of the documentary: Randi believes in “honest liars.” No, Randi has a problem with preachers and psychics who trick people into believing that faith, magic, telekinesis, telepathy, and communion with the dead are real for their own fame and monetary gain.

An Honest Liar details some of the amazing lengths that Randi and his supporters went to do debunk these tricksters. Basically, the biggest tricks Randi pulled were to expose other people’s. He infiltrated faith healer Peter Popoff’s church revival meetings, created a fake prophet named “Carlos,” and helped prepare The Tonight Show stage to stymy famed psychic Uri Gellar on live television.

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Even if all An Honest Liar did was to detail Randi’s campaign against deception, it would be an electrifying — and polarizing — documentary. But the film also slowly peels back the lies that make up Randi’s public persona, personal life, and code of morality.

The most fascinating thing about An Honest Liar isn’t its portrayal of one man’s life; it’s how it exposes how we all build our lives on the foundations of lies. We want to believe in higher powers, comforting stories, and the love of the people around us. We want to believe in these things so much that we willfully ignore the signs that something is wrong. And at the end of the day, is it worth it to be honest with ourselves — or is it better to be blissfully in love with a lie? [Watch An Honest Liar on Netflix]

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[Photo: Everett Collection]