Running With Scissors reviews

rudeboy
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Post by rudeboy »

Akash wrote:Shouldn't that actually guarantee her a nomination then? Or at least place her in the vicinity of nomination potential? The Academy almost always goes for shallow, showy and over the top rather than subtlety or nuance.

Yes, but when a film is as roundly disliked as this seems to be, I think we can safely write it off. It's only (very slim) chance for recognition is for Clayburgh, who seems to be singled out even in some of the most vicious pans. As Magilla indicates in the Razzie predictions thread, that ceremony is Bening's best hope for any kind of nomination this year.
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Post by Akash »

Penelope wrote:I seriously can't imagine Bening emerging from this catastrophe with a nomination; she can so often slip over into arch and shrill, and here she plays Dierdre all on that level--it's a truly unappealing performance.
Shouldn't that actually guarantee her a nomination then? Or at least place her in the vicinity of nomination potential? The Academy almost always goes for shallow, showy and over the top rather than subtlety or nuance.
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Post by Penelope »

Not to twist the knife any further, but it was quite obvious when at least 8 members of the audience walked out during the movie; I spoke to a friend in Chicago who also reported several walkouts during his Saturday afternoon screening.
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Post by Penelope »

Akash, I don't know if the cheese stands alone, but apparently I liked Burroughs better than you do; I, too, got to see him give a speech, and while he did strike me as a bit of an egotist (but don't you have to be to write about yourself?), but he also seemed rather likable. And now I have an autographed copy of Dry.

Running with Scissors, the book, isn't some masterpiece of writing, but I found it compulsively entertaining, nicely focused, thoroughly unsentimental and often very, very funny.

Running with Scissors, the movie, is just about as wrong-headed a film as one can get. Writer-director Ryan Murphy makes several fatal errors: he realigns the focus of the story to include far too much of Augusten's mother, Dierdre (Annette Bening), and zeros in on the seriousness of the story, resulting in a film the slips into mawkish, treacly sentiment. The movie lurches ungainly along from one screaming match to the next, the heavy use of '70s music designed not for any thematic concern but just so Murphy can attempt to smooth over his transitions.

I seriously can't imagine Bening emerging from this catastrophe with a nomination; she can so often slip over into arch and shrill, and here she plays Dierdre all on that level--it's a truly unappealing performance. Amazingly, and sadly, Brian Cox matches her arch for arch--it's really frustrating to watch this great actor behave like a clown.

The movie has two pleasures in the cast. Jill Clayburgh manages to imbue her character with some genuine depth; and Joseph Fiennes scores the film's biggest laughs with a genuinely hilarious (and scary) portrayal of Augusten's schizo pedophile boyfriend.
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Post by Akash »

anonymous wrote:Don't you guys think that Running with Scissors could have been the perfect English-language vehicle for Pedro Almodovar?
Ugh, no.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound dismissive and I apologize in advance if anyone here is a fan of the author, but Pedro Almodovar is too gifted, too nuanced, too indelible an artist to waste his time and talents on mediocre fare like an Augusten Burroughs' novel. I know he's popular but I've always found his writing to be snarky and shallow and his attempts at humor are more blatant and ham-fisted than witty. Less like Oscar Wilde and more like Oscar Meyer.

I was also in NY when Burroughs read from his book at an event at Columbia which I attended because a girl I was into liked his book and wanted to go (that should have been clue # 1 that we had nothing in common). And trust me the guy has an obnoxious persona. Think Quentin Tarantino in well...every interview. Except at least Tarantino has talent to back it up.

Anyway, I knew this film would probably not be very good given that its source material was so poor. Does anyone else feel this way or does the cheese stand alone here?
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Post by danfrank »

After watching this, I kept thinking that I wish they'd just hand the footage over to another editor, because there seems to be a good movie in there somewhere. The pacing in this film is just horrible (it completely runs out of steam at the end), and it can't seem to settle on the right tone. There are some great scenes, though, and Bening gives another tour de force comic performance. Clayburgh, though she's made to look over-the-top frumpy, acts the snot (literally, in one scene) out of her role. In a better movie, these two would be talked up for nominations.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 24%. Gotta love all those interviews Annette Bening is giving, saying she's not interested in winning an Oscar. A smart face saving move.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Don't you guys think that Running with Scissors could have been the perfect English-language vehicle for Pedro Almodovar?
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Running With Scissors

Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles
Screendaily


Dir: Ryan Murphy. US. 2006. 122 mins.


Ryan Murphy, the Hollywood wunderkind whose Nip/Tuck is one of the most cutting edge series on US TV at the moment, turns his caustic sensibilities to Running With Scissors, the film version of Augusten Burroughs' popular memoirs. As one might expect from the creator of Nip/Tuck, Murphy opts for a bleak tone in the story of a young boy's nightmare childhood, replacing the cheerful black comedy of Burroughs' episodic book with an unironic blackness.

Although Murphy is about the hottest talent in Hollywood right now and his cast here is insanely hip, Running With Scissors will be a bumpy ride for most viewers. The many fans of the book's exuberance will be let down by Murphy's sombre interpretation, while newcomers to the peculiar Burroughs world will find it rhythmically uneven and, rather like Nip/Tuck, lacking in warmth.

Mental illness has had a mixed track record at the box office, occasionally hitting glorious highs with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and A Beautiful Mind (and Forrest Gump, depending on your point of view), but generally appealing to specialized tastes. This film has a very high "cool" factor but it is still unquestionably small, touching along the way on gay sex, paedophilia and pharmaceutical abuse.

It will probably end up somewhere between the modest numbers of Pi ($3.2m in 1998) and Proof ($6.6m in 2005) and the respectable heights of Sling Blade ($24.4m in 1996), Girl, Interrupted ($28.9m in 1999) and Shine ($35.9m in 1996).

Domestic and international numbers will be boosted if the film can score in the upcoming awards season. Most likely to draw attention to the film will be nominations for Annette Bening as Augusten's mentally ill mother Deirdre....


....There's so much to admire on a scene-by-scene basis in Running With Scissors that its overall failure to cohere is doubly disappointing. The performances are exemplary: Bening never resorts to hysteria in a role which could so easily have been a caricature, offering an unsettling glimpse into the pain of bipolar disorder, Cross blends just the right amount of childhood confusion with the knowing cynicism that Burroughs was compelled to adopt, Wood is magnetic as the charismatic Natalie, Fiennes surprisingly convincing as Bookman and Cox, as always, commanding as the amoral Finch. The character of Hope is reduced from the book and Paltrow has little chance to shine.

Murphy's maudlin finale - a round of glum farewells as Augusten sets off to New York to start a new life - belies the humour and optimism that shone through at the end of Burroughs' memoirs. Although Burroughs is publicly endorsing the film, readers of the book will miss his wry, engaging commentary.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Variety and HR, both say the performances are much stronger than the film itself.

Running With Scissors

By JUSTIN CHANG
Variety


The royally screwed-up adolescence of Augusten Burroughs has made it to the bigscreen with several nips, tucks and a noticeably duller edge in "Running With Scissors." Writer-director Ryan Murphy strives mightily to capture the bracing hilarity, pathos and surreal incident of Burroughs' bestselling memoir, but this rudderless adaptation never gets a firm grip on the author's deadpan tone or episodic narrative style. With critical attention likely to focus less on the film than the strong individual performances, specifically Annette Bening's monstrously entertaining turn as Burroughs' mother, Sony may have difficulty luring niche audiences beyond the book's estimable readership.

Published to great acclaim in 2002, "Running With Scissors" all but rewrote the book on traumatic childhoods with its tale of parental abandonment, mental illness, pedophilia and the most idiosyncratic foster family this side of the Royal Tenenbaums. Yet Burroughs' distinct comic voice, his ability to relate the wackiest events imaginable in dryly matter-of-fact prose, also managed to neutralize any traces of self-pity.

That voice proves maddeningly elusive here, despite the first-person narration that poses a question at the outset: "Where do I begin to tell the story of how my mother left me, and then I left her?"

First scene is set in the Burroughs' Massachusetts home in 1972, with 7-year-old Augusten (Jack Kaeding) listening attentively to his mother, Deirdre (Bening), read a poem she plans to submit to the New Yorker. Bening's recitation immediately suggests qualities that become more pronounced in Deirdre throughout the film -- her futile dreams of a successful writing career, her smothering narcissism and her need to draw strength from her son, to the point of treating him as little more than an adoring fan.

Six years later, as her marriage to Augusten's alcoholic father Norman (a stoic Alec Baldwin) deteriorates, Deirdre begins seeing a therapist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), known for his unusual and progressive methods. The couple's spiteful joint sessions don't forestall their inevitable divorce, but Deirdre continues to visit the doctor with Augusten (now played by Joseph Cross), who is fascinated by this odd, Santa Claus-like figure.

The film begins its descent into the rabbit hole when mother and son visit Dr. Finch's home, a ramshackle Victorian house with shocking-pink exteriors and rooms strewn with garbage, arcane memorabilia and other bizarre odds and ends (superbly outfitted by production designer Richard Sherman).

No less eccentric are the house's inhabitants: Dr. Finch's wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), who watches "Dark Shadows" and eats kibble; his older daughter Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), who makes every decision by pointing at a word in the Bible at random and interpreting it accordingly; and fiery younger daughter Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood), whose heavy eye shadow signals her more rebellious nature.

Deirdre and Dr. Finch abruptly inform Augusten he will be staying with the doctor indefinitely while Deirdre recovers from her neuroses. Augusten soon comes to view the Finch family as his own. He befriends Dr. Finch's thirtysomething adopted son, Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes, looking like a dark, mustachioed elf), and their relationship quickly turns sexual. It's a sign of how strange his life has become that this registers as one of the story's less shocking details, though the film's sanitized depiction of their couplings is considerably less graphic and intense than the book's.


Making his feature writing and helming debut, Murphy (the force behind FX's plastic surgery drama "Nip/Tuck") has pared Burroughs' anecdotal tome down to a choice selection of humorous episodes, excising several characters.

Yet while individual scenes are memorable, the picture that emerges is more of a crazy-quilt (literally) than a cohesive drama. It's a messy, discursive piece of work, capturing the freewheeling sense of life in the Finch household but never giving the characters' deeper connections and psychological motivations their proper due.

As is often the case with filmed memoirs, the reduction of the narrator to just another figure robs the story of its most important voice. And while Cross makes an engaging and thoroughly believable Augusten, his performance is essentially reactive; the film rarely succeeds in getting under his skin.

Bening's full-bodied performance, on the other hand, achieves a level of complexity and coherence that eludes the rest of the film. Modulating expertly between Deirdre's self-pitying rationalizations and explosive fits of temper, the actress channels qualities she's conveyed memorably in her previous roles, from her marital frustration in "American Beauty" to her self-absorbed love of play-acting in "Being Julia." Thesp uses her voice to richly theatrical effect when reading Deirdre's navel-gazing poetry, yet resists the temptation to either demonize or caricaturize her.

Other cast standouts are Cox, savoring every droll syllable as the alternately benign and threatening Dr. Finch; and Clayburgh, who brings a rich emotional life to the haggard, long-suffering Agnes. Her final scene with Augusten is immensely moving.

Strong tech credits feature a host of "Nip/Tuck" regulars, including editor Byron Smith; cinematographer Christopher Baffa, whose widescreen lensing is suitably on the dark side; Lou Eyrich, showing a zany sense of invention with the actors' costumes; and James S. Levine, who penned the bittersweet score.

Though the soundtrack is smeared with period-appropriate tunes from the likes of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, 10cc and Bill Evans, pic doesn't overdo the '70s ambience.

-----------------------------------


Running With Scissors


By Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter


NEW YORK -- The maxim that truth is stranger than fiction is carried to the nth degree in this adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir of his dysfunctional childhood and adolescence. But while the story might have been believable on the written page, on film "Running With Scissors" plays like a surreal black comedy that seems all too redolent of the cinematic excesses of the 1970s, the period in which it is set. While name recognition and a stellar cast might prove a draw, the sheer strangeness of the material is likely to be off-putting for mainstream audiences.

Written and directed by Ryan Murphy (FX's "Nip/Tuck") in his feature debut, the film chronicles the early life of Augusten (Joseph Cross), whose middle-class childhood was marred by his unconventional upbringing at the hands of his deeply neurotic mother, Deirdre (Annette Bening), an aspiring but unpublished poet, and his alcoholic father, Norman (Alec Baldwin).

In an effort to restore their crumbling relationship, the couple begins therapy with the wildly unconventional Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), who suggests daily five-hour sessions and whose office contains a "Masturbatorium," where he periodically retreats to relax.

When the marriage eventually founders, the now teenage Augusten is sent to live with the doctor and his family at their rundown, gothic-style home (the set was inspired by the drawings of Edward Gorey). There, he encounters various addled characters, including the nearly catatonic Mrs. Finch (Jill Clayburgh), who spends her time watching old movies while nibbling on dog food, as well as her daughters, the Bible-obsessed Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and precociously sexy Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood), who quickly bonds with Augusten by, among other things, experimenting with electric-shock therapy.

Also occasionally present is the family's mysterious adopted son Neil (Joseph Fiennes), with whom Augusten eventually discovers the nature of his sexuality.


Necessarily episodic in its structure, the film wallows in the darkly comic absurdities of the story, resulting in many undeniably funny but less than convincing scenes. Indeed, the sheer absurdity of what is being presented onscreen, despite being related as a true story, seems so utterly over the top that it's hard not to make parallels with the recent controversies over the truth of various memoirs.

The excellent performers cope well with their characters' excesses. Bening, playing a polar opposite of her "American Beauty" housewife, delivers a beautifully modulated and daring turn that well conveys her character's vulnerability as well as her disturbance. Cox pulls out all the stops as the outrageous doctor to great comic effect; Baldwin, reaffirming his recent status as one of our funniest comic actors, underplays hilariously; Wood is sexy and entertainingly loopy; Clayburgh, made to look grotesque, has at least one very affecting scene toward the end; and Paltrow and Fiennes, reuniting after "Shakespeare in Love," are very effective with their relatively briefer turns.

As the young Burroughs, Cross delivers a sensitive portrayal that gives the movie an emotional center that it often otherwise lacks. Director Murphy provides a nice touch toward the end, having the young actor and his real-life inspiration share a silent moment together.
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Post by flipp525 »

Reza wrote:Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration

The preview for this film is finally up and O'Hara looks absolutely hilarious. She has this guffaing/laughing moment in a parking lot that had me cracking the f--k up. Her nomination is at the top of my wish-list.
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Post by Sabin »

I don't like 'Little Miss Sunshine' very much. I feel as though I may have been too harsh on it in my review, but really there's not terribly much to get pumped over. Outside of Breslin. She's pretty wonderful in the film and I would not be upset if she were nominated.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I still haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine, but I did see little Abigail Breslin in last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy in which she was more precocious/annoying than Dakota Fanning. On the other hand, I loved Dakota's adorable little sister, Elle, in an episode of House, M.D. She's in Babel and has four films in post-production. Watch out, Dakota and Abigail!
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Post by Penelope »

Reza wrote:
Penelope wrote:Don't forget Emily Blunt in Prada!!!!!

Didn't like her at all! Streep's presence blew everyone off the screen.
Blasphemer!!!! :angry:
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"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
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Post by Reza »

Penelope wrote:Don't forget Emily Blunt in Prada!!!!!
Didn't like her at all! Streep's presence blew everyone off the screen.
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