Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
punishmentpark
Good to see Lili Taylor again, she is one of my favorite actresses, even if I've not seen much with her in it lately (it is really time to go see 'The Addiction' and 'Factotum' again, and then some). I've never seen anything with the real Valerie Solanas in it (nor did I know anything about her until I recently saw Zbynek Brynych's 'Die Weibchen', based on the S.C.U.M. Manifesto), but Taylor does a fine performance, as does pretty much everyone else in the cast.I found this to be an interesting film; Solanas is an intriguing person whose personality was uncontrollable, not in the least by herself. It would be easy to discard her as crazy - too easy. She fit right in with the crowd at the time, but her mental issues got the better of her. Had her Manifesto been published straight away and appreciated for the absurd piece of feminist work it has come to be, maybe things could have taken a different turn for her - though I wouldn't dare to feel certain about that, seeing as much of the publicity (probably) came with her attempting to kill Warhol ánd her mental problems may have been too severe anyway...Back to the film, for a minute: I really liked it, being a fairly straight-forward telling of Solanas' life, mostly focusing on (about) a few years up until she shot Warhol. The party scene was a bit too long for my taste though and at times her rans felt a little repetitive, but on the other hand, I didn't catch all of it, either. The characters of Stevie, Candy Darling and Warhol are also quite memorable.A big 7 out of 10, and perhaps I'll try this one again sometime, to really take in all the info and rantings.
rose-294
A movie about Valerie Solanas, 1960s radical feminist who worked with the pop artist Andy Warhol and - you guessed it - tried to kill him. Sewer-mouthed tomboy who works as a whore and hates men and femininity, she writes SCUM manifesto - no, not her biography, albeit the name is apt, but militant feminist ramblings - and tries to do the murderous deed. (No, it is not really a spoiler, it is mentioned in the title.) Albeit suffering later from paranoia and mental illness, which is always a tragedy, her totally disgusting personality makes her anything but sympathetic. Not that other characters would be more interesting or likable. Blech.
moonspinner55
Lili Taylor plays Valerie Solanas, an educated loose cannon, guerrilla female activist and self-described 'bull dyke', who was taken into custody in June 1968 after shooting and wounding Andy Warhol at his New York City office/hangout The Factory. Good-looking movie investigates a hazy chapter in history, yet leaves some unanswered questions in its wake (I wasn't aware that apparently an assistant was also shot, though the film makes no attempt to explain what happened to him). However, this small-budgeted film captures a decadently apathetic, coolly indifferent time and place quite vividly, as good as any post-'60s movie has yet managed. Taylor is appropriately forceful and ungainly in her role, which is more complex than one might think, and yet hers is the least interesting or intriguing character on display. Stephen Dorff does a pretty terrific job as transvestite Candy Darling, Tahnee Welch is unrecognizable as Warhol's most famous starlet Viva, and Jared Harris is flawless as Warhol (he nails it). Terrific art direction and composition, but the film lags a bit in the narrative department, with Solanas meeting an anti-bourgeois activist which doesn't come to much and has a facetious, puzzling relationship with publisher Maurice Girodias which seems half-baked. **1/2 from ****
Rathko
An independent gem of a movie that proves once again that give a good actor some well-written dialogue and the support to take a few risks and you can make gold. Lili Taylor, working under the careful stewardship of Mary Hanlon, works hard to give a pitch perfect performance as the brilliant and deeply troubled Solanas. Her intelligence and humor and always evident, but for all her strutting arrogance, she conveys an uncertainty and vulnerability that foreshadows what is ultimately a painful and tragic descent into violence and paranoia.The evocation of the late 60's New York underground, and Warhol's Factory in particular, is brilliant, even more so when you consider the low budget and that Andy Warhol's Estate refused to allow any of the artists work to actually be duplicated for the movie. The pill-popping, light-show gazing, pretentiousness, promiscuity and vacuousness of the scene have not been this well portrayed since Midnight Cowboy.The supporting cast, without exception, are brilliant, inhabiting their characters completely with just a few lines, and the soundtrack perfectly sets the tone and period. While the narrative lags in spots and could have benefited with a little tightening in the editing room, I Shot Andy Warhol is still a wonderful testament to the ambitious possibilities of low-budget, independent film-making.