I Shot Andy Warhol
He was the world-renowned King of Pop Art -- and his life was about to take a dramatic turn in exchange for someone else's fifteen minutes of fame! Starring Lili Taylor (Ransom) and Jared Harris (Father's Day), and winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Award, this "vibrant, touching and thoroughly entertaining film" (The New York Times) explores the provocative story behind the shooting of 60s' superstar Andy Warhol.
Valerie Solanas (Taylor), a lesbian writer, loner and prostitute has come to the Big Apple with one goal in mind: to spread the gospel of her radical feminism. Desperate for an audience, she latches on to the fringes of Warhol's (Harris) glamorous sex-and-drug-laced Factory scene. But as her zeal swerves dangerously out of control, her private madness leads to a bizarre obsession with the artist himself -- and a final, explosive act of violence that not only gets her notice...but makes her manifesto infamous.
Member Reviews
good movie - dsfan
i'm not usually a fan of artsy indie movies but i thought this movie was pretty good. the reason why i checked this movie to begin with is because i'm a big fan of r.e.m. and they do a cover of the troggs song "love is all around". when i listened to the soundtrack i thought it was pretty good too. so good movie & good soundtrack = awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Culturally Significant but only Marginally Entertaining - Gregg
The story of Valerie Solanas who as the title indicates was responsible for shooting pop artist Andy Warhol. Solanas was a highly intelligent radical feminist but was she also obviously deeply disturbed. The film also functions secondarily as a portrayal of the fringe culture that was attracted to Andy Warhol and his well known open studio The Factory.
The film is for the most part a study of a deranged mind and a portrait of self destruction as Valerie spirals out of control. We are informed that Valerie may have been psychologically damaged by abuse from her childhood but that’s not dealt with in the scope of the film. Due to the films focus it is difficult to sympathize with Valerie and there is little opportunity to get to know any of the other characters very well, as a result I didn’t really connect with the film.
As to the positives, Lilli Taylor gives a very compelling performance that while not very appealing or attractive as a human being is a very effective portrayal. The rest of the cast is by and large good though I found some of the performances or perhaps the characters very typically indie as they strove to standout sometimes at the expensive of character development.
I also found that the score did not always seem appropriate to the material, it starts off somewhat symphonic and other times it just seemed jarring.
Valerie Solanas's opus per se was the Scum Manifesto which spelled out her vision of an al-female society brought about by violent revolution.Great performances in uneven movie - Cricri7
This is a little independant movie made without much money, which is easily seen, but with great performances especially by Lili Taylor. She plays the woman who shot Andy Warhol. We heard a lot about the fact that Andy Warhol was shot, but this movie shows how this woman, with many psychiatric problems, was led to believe that Warhol would maybe produce her play. Warhol and his factory often took on people but it was to laugh at them and ridicule them. Solanas was way too fragile to play that role without being scarred by that.
People could think that this movie is about Andy Warhol but it is not. It is really about the adult life of Solanas which led to the shooting of Warhol. Do not rent this thinking that you will learn about Warhol because you will be dissapointed, however you will see a great performance by Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff...yes..yes...Stephen Dorff...he delivers a strong performance of a drag queen in this movie.
Member Reviews
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good movie - dsfan
i'm not usually a fan of artsy indie movies but i thought this movie was pretty good. the reason why i checked this movie to begin with is because i'm a big fan of r.e.m. and they do a cover of the troggs song "love is all around". when i listened to the soundtrack ...Culturally Significant but only Marginally Entertaining - Gregg
The story of Valerie Solanas who as the title indicates was responsible for shooting pop artist Andy Warhol. Solanas was a highly intelligent radical feminist but was she also obviously deeply disturbed. The film also functions secondarily as a portrayal of ...Great performances in uneven movie - Cricri7
This is a little independant movie made without much money, which is easily seen, but with great performances especially by Lili Taylor. She plays the woman who shot Andy Warhol. We heard a lot about the fact that Andy Warhol was shot, but this movie shows ...