SnoopyStyle On 1968, Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) shots Andy Warhol (Jared Harris) and turns herself in to the police. Her reason lies in her anti-male Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM) manifesto. She was molested as a child. She attended University of Maryland from 1954 to 58 where she developed her theory of the superiority of women. She prostituted herself and became a lesbian. Homeless in 1966 NYC, Valerie and friend Stevie (Martha Plimpton) meet transvestite Candy (Stephen Dorff). Candy is invited to Warhol's Factory. Valerie tags along hoping to get Warhol produce her play. Valerie meets avant-garde publisher Maurice Girodias while doing her aggressive panhandling.Lili Taylor is absolutely amazing. However Valerie's aggressively grating character makes it difficult to fully embrace this movie. There is no real tension. The ending is already shown. It's basically an one-woman show. It goes a long way but for me, it doesn't go far enough for greatness. It's one note played over and over again.

Blake Peterson The number of people who misunderstand the goals of feminism is astonishing. To the kiddos who live by the word of conservatives and close-minded nefarios, the term is synonymous with man-hating, or, a case of female empowerment too supposedly vicious and oppressive for its own good. All feminists want is for the female race to have the same basic rights as men, which is fair, not terrifying. (Another case exemplifying why putting labels on issues can be a dangerous thing.) The meninists of our time, unfortunately, have feminists mixed up with combative revolutionaries akin to, I don't know, Valerie Solanas. Who is Valerie Solanas, you ask? Valerie Jean Solanas (born 1936, died 1988), Wikipedia reads, was an American radical feminist writer best known for the "SCUM Manifesto" and as the would-be murderer of pop artist Andy Warhol. Solanas despised men, not as people but as society's weak links: she figured that men, with their Y chromosomes, were genetic accidents, and that women were meant to rule the world. Not like Beyoncé currently preaches, though: Solanas' goal was to completely exterminate the sex, thus ending the possibilities of future generations and setting the female example in stone.If her logic sounds crazy to you, then you, of course, are of sound mind. But don't let her fanatical blueprints undermine your interest in her. Anything written about Solanas, understandably, makes her sound like a lunatic on the move — that's why 1996's "I Shot Andy Warhol" is such an impactful film. Sure, she still seems like a lunatic on the move. But unexpected is how fascinating of a woman she is, a staggering example of a highly intelligent force of nature who was so struck down during their formative years that using a high IQ for something rational in adulthood seems too mad of a thought. "I Shot Andy Warhol" is so much more than a true crime story set to the screen; it's more comparable to a brilliant character study that just so happens to be based on true events. Harron is invested in Solanas but is also attentive toward the people that surround her. We are understanding of Solanas' view of herself and the view from the judgmental eyes of The Factory and beyond — Harron is so subtly thorough that there are times we forget we aren't actually watching a Candy Darling biopic or a Factory documentary. Every character, compelling or not, is damaged in some way, making the film much more resonant. Solanas' entrance only adds wood to the personal fires of the people she continually harasses; explosive results should have been expected originally.More remarkable is the acting. When it comes to biographical tales, often tiresome is the idea that more attention is given to the fact that hey, _______ _______ is playing ______ ______!, when, in actuality, real figures should have as much depth, if not more, than your average movie character. Astonishing is the way "I Shot Andy Warhol" makes the situation feel as though it is happening before our very eyes. Solanas is not glorified nor portrayed as a crazy person left to expire in the throes of infamy. Instead, she is a misunderstood genius so unrelentingly cast aside by society that Warhol's emotional standoffishness causes an already unstable person to completely snap. Taylor embodies Solanas so convincingly that the increasing madness of her character does instill fear in us.Supporting players Dorff and Harris also make a huge impression: Dorff is terrific as Candy Darling. Never leaning toward caricature-ish body movements or stereotyped predictabilities, he touches deep as a transsexual who made it (kind of) in a time where most were stamped on by culture. Harris turns Warhol into the eccentric we never knew he was, as an artist so hypnotized by the looks, feelings, and auras of others that he never really knew how to be himself. He's polite to Solanas, never turning her down like he should, but is it because he's nice or because she acts as a distraction to his unhealthy habit of consuming himself with the other?"I Shot Andy Warhol" is gigantically effective; it tells a story coercive even to the most casual of a viewer while also authentically investing in the neuroses of the real figures it brings to the celluloid.

CountZero313 Lili Taylor gives a savagely kinetic performance in this representation of a disturbed individual who may just also have been a genius despite, or because of, her treatment at the hands of various men throughout her life.Judging biopics in terms of historical accuracy is for the most part a futile exercise. There is no 'truth', only interpretation, but if you want to get closer to the facts you really should be in the library, not the movie theatre. The story of Valerie Solanas is especially vexing in this case, because were this a work of complete fiction, the script would never have been made. The 'so what?' factor is superseded by the fact that this actually happened, and the legacy of Solanas still divides contemporary feminists.As cinema, the film succeeds through the charisma exuded in Taylor's performance. Her descent into madness is sudden, vicious and uncompromising. The depiction of the shooting, the moment the film has been leading up to, shows a human being divorced absolutely from her conscience. The groovy scene around Warhol's the Factory is both decadent and, viewed from the 21st century, slightly twee. The pastiche of Sixties nostalgia is less foregrounded than Solanas's brutal victimhood. The film begins with a reading of her psychiatric evaluation, where a litany of unpunished crimes inflicted upon this woman by various men is laid out. The female director sets her stall out straight away - what you are hearing now leads through a direct line of cause and effect to the monstrous act you will see committed by Solanas later.If the film has a major flaw, it is the title. Audiences could be mistaken for thinking it is about a documentarian of Warhol's life and work. Solanas and her SCUM manifesto, for better or worse, have made their mark, and perhaps 'Solanas' would have been a more fitting (if less marketable) title. Did it take the shooting for that to be the case? A polemical moment in recent history relayed straightforwardly, this is competent, entertaining, edifying cinema.

Lee Eisenberg I had never heard of Valerie Solanas before seeing "I Shot Andy Warhol", but the movie does a very good job telling the story. We see Valerie as a misunderstood - but strong-willed - person disenchanted with the world around her. Lili Taylor does a really good job showing what sort of person Solanas was. The movie doesn't try to deify Solanas in any way, it shows what kind of world she came from, and that she tried to make a new life for herself. Above all, one gets a sense of how weird (and mildly depraved) it must have been in Andy Warhol's world. I recommend the film.Also starring Jared Harris. Director Mary Harron later directed "American Psycho".