Director Marcus Turner & Kobie ‘Gatsby’ Randolph
Staring Kobie ‘Gatsby’ Randolph & Sean Harley
Score 7/6
Limited Australian Release from April 23

Who is Gatsby Randolph? follows Kobie / Gatsby as he flies on a one-way ticket from Tennessee to LA for a once-in-a-lifetime deal, only to watch it fall apart and be left standing on the sidewalk in Hollywood with no options. Ever the chameleon, Kobie invents the alter-ego ‘Gatsby Randolph’, a fictitious celebrity, and quickly sets a course to conquer the city that had all but slammed the door on his dreams.

Okay. There is a lot to unpack here, I will admit that this my second crack at writing this review. As soon as I saw the words ‘This is not based on a true story, this is a true story’ in the opening credits my first thought was oh so here is a familiar trope, so just how much of this is true? These words can be the kiss of death to a movie.
For those of you who are interested when I was first told about ‘Who is Gatsby Randolph?’ I was told that it was up for 2021 Oscar consideration in Best Documentary and Best Film categories, and I have to admit that the voice of negativity in my head (that I need to ignore on more regular basis) would not shut up and stop calling this a mockumentary which while I was watching the movie seemed to be the only rational explanation for what I was told about the movie. I am willing to assume that names have been changed to protect the innocent (possibly a reporter from the BBC and an American Morning show?).
The use of Donald Pitts as William Geoffrey (a clear homage to Robin Leach and his television series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous) served as an interesting framing device for Randolph to be able to tell his story. I loved his piece to camera at the start and the end of the movie, Randolph has a great presence on camera he is clearly part business and part magician. Who else but a magician would be able to go to the lengths that was needed to get some of the footage for this movie over the course of several years (as it was pointed out at the end of the movie) which explains the mockumentary feel, the blurring of the line between feature and documentary makes me feel uncomfortable to definitively label this as a documentary because it is more then that and because of my own preconceived notions of what a documentary is. It is great to be put in a cinematic position by filmmakers and that way I am able to say Who is Gatsby Randolph? is unlike anything I have seen before. I found myself laughing throughout the movie and was led by the hand into ‘it is so crazy that must be true’ territory. While watching this I was reminded of a YouTube video I watched of Australian Businessman Mark Bouris talking about what he learnt from Australian Billionaire Kerry Packer also the infamous APEC Australia 2007 prank pulled by Australian satire group The Chaser.