I Shot Andy Warhol

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 * 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.

This is a great movie which took me to a lot of exotic destinations such as 1960ies New York, the Factory family and the emerging transgender scene. The movie also does an excellent job of portraying the fragmented life and difficult personality of Valerie Solanas convincingly. My only problem with this movie is this: you don't have to be Andy Warhol's biggest fan to think that the fact that Solanas tried to wipe out three people in cold blood (that she only wounded two wasn't for lack of trying) is an at best insufficient reason for turning the lime light on to her. Making a movie about the Factory scene from Valerie Solanas' perspective is like making a movie about the Beatles as seen through the eyes of Mark Chapman.

This movie contained enough little things to shock the prudes in the audience. Add a couple of fine acting performances and you still end up with a disturbing piece of 'pop' culture. Lili Taylor plays Valerie Solanas, a wannabe novelist, that tries to garner fame by shooting Andy Warhol. Taylor does a good job portraying a complicated and highly -disturbed woman. Stephen Dorff excelled as the gender bending Candy Darling. Jared Harris duplicated Warhol and his boring personage. Also in the cast are Martha Plimpton and Donovan Leitch. I watched this because it was on the Bravo Network. I didn't gain anything except being reminded that Warhol died later due to complications recovering from Solanas' assassination attempt.

Valerie Solanas, feminist hero? or total maniac? Considering she tried to assassinate Andy Warhol, you tell me. Meet one of the angriest feminists in American history, in all of her glory, in a beautifully done film by American Psycho director Marry Harron. It's a journey of rejection, loathing, and pain. Lilli Taylor is great, and so is the rest of the cast. The script is top notch, and the editing is fabulous, and surprisingly exuberant. Biopics shine when they are brought to the screen with more panache than.. lets say an A&E documentary.

If Peeping Tom was directed by a woman, then it would probably resemble Mary Harron's wonderful I Shot Andy Warhol. Like Peeping Tom, I Shot Andy Warhol is about how misunderstandings between the sexes can lead to violence. What was so great about I Shot Andy Warhol is how it takes a woman who most people would consider a psychopath and it humanizes her. We see what drives Valerie Solanas to commit her "insane" act of shooting Andy Warhol, and we come to understand why she did what she ended up doing. In other words, I Shot Andy Warhol successfully gets into the head of "insanity." After watching this film, I thought of a poem from Emily Dickinson: "Much madness is divinest sense. . . to a discerning eye. Much sense, the starkest madness. Ascent, and you are sane. Demure, you're straightaway dangerous, and put into chains." Now, let's see what Mary Harron does with another story about a "psychopath," American Psycho. . .