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.

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 ****

I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) was an interesting movie that I saw on satellite t.v. a few years ago. The movie was about the lesbian neo-feminist and founder of S.C.U.M. Valerie Solanis (Lili Taylor). She's an aspiring writer who's trying to fit in the mid sixties lifestyle of New York City. Valerie lives with her sometimes lover (Martha Plimpton) and co-worker. The two turn tricks, roll certain customers and hang out with a transvestite named Candy Darling (Stephen Dorff). One day Candy suggests to Valerie that she meet with Andy Warhol (Jared Harris). The rest is history. Michael Imperioli co-stars as a very catty Ondine, Tahnee Welch guest stars as Viva and Donovan Leitch appears as Gerald Malanga.If you want to see how Warhol's "Factory" and it's atmosphere then this is the movie you want to see. Jared Harris was perfect as Andy Warhol and Lili Taylor made Valerie Solanis into a tragic person who's life was filled with madness and heartbreak. I was also impressed with Stephen Dorff, I never knew how great of an actor he has become. This movie is perfect and ideal for those who always wanted to know what happened to Warhol during the late sixties and how his life and attitudes were changed forever.Highly recommended.

I Shot Andy WarholBefore I saw this film, I never knew Lili could be so, loud. Normally, on shows and in other movies she?s very soft spoken in most of the scenes. She portrays a Lesbian writer, Valerie Solanas, who is a man hater. She decides to write a manifesto, and create S.C.U.M., or society for cutting up men. She worked her way through collage by prostitution, and got a degree in psychology. Then she is often homeless, sleeping on ruffs, with her typewriter, and paper bag of things. She even comes up with weird ways of earning money, ten cents any dirty word, six bucks for an hour worth of conversation, and even some chest stepping, odd but true. This is how she meets Maurice Gerodeious. He's major porn publisher who wants her to write him two novels. She declines at first but later goes to dinner, all dolled up, and signs the contract. Then the next day she read the whole contract and sees that she got screwed...(... a rate of six percent for the first 20,000 copies, a rate of six percent for the first 20,000 copies, he wants to own scum....).So she tries to sell the manifesto, telling people it will change their life; she also charges 50 cents for girls, and 1.00 for men. Valerie has also written a play called up your a** about some experiences she has had with the "male species". Andy wont produce it, and it gets tossed out, but she specifically told them that she only had one other copy, that she needed that one back. she spends the remainder of the movie trying to get the script back, and develops the obsession. She now believes that Andy and the publisher are trying to steal scum and own it, alone. In order to do what ever she really wants to do, she gets dolled up, again, and goes to the new factory. Here she shoots Warhol and his assistant before running out of bullets, then she tries to shoot the other assistant so she pulls the trigger anyway, only to make noise that it makes, and she goes out the elevator. Valerie walks down the street and sees a police officer, she goes up and tells him the police are looking for her and gives him the gun. "I shot Andy Warhol, yeah, I had to he had too much control over my life.", as she hands over her gun, out of the paper bag. See a couple of days ago she got the bag and putts all her belongings in it. "See I?ve been carrying all my belonging in the bag for a few days now, including the ice pick, which I'd forgotten." is what she says when she is asked why she needs the ice pick. Lili masters this role, as usual, and SHOULD have walked away with that Oscar, she deserved it. Do you know how hard it is to believe you self in to a role the way she does? She has that unknown quality, the thing Judy Garland had, that magic, that nobody can copy. Not in a thousand years. Great movie, you should see it, but its not the greatest for children, they refer to a lot of sexual references, and intercourse.