AllMovie

Mary Harron's debut, a modern period piece, nails what New York City in general, and Andy Warhol's factory in particular, looked and felt like in the late '60s. Assisting Harron in her recreation of the period are the stellar performances of Lili Taylor as Solanas and Jared Harris as Warhol. Taylor invests Solanas with a gritty intelligence and a sense of reckless danger. One gets the impression that the character really did write the funny, vengeful snippets she reads from The SCUM Manifesto. Harris captures Warhol's feigned boredom that masked a puppet master's control over his surroundings. His last scene, in which he is startled because he believes he sees Solanas, shows how far the character has fallen from his feelings of aloof impenetrability. Having plunged the audience into the physical and psychological reality in which these characters existed, viewers begin to understand the surreal logic of Warhol's "star system," Solanas' creation of The SCUM Manifesto, and the casual cruelty of almost everybody involved in that scene. As the behavior of the characters grows more outlandish, the viewer can understand why. That one might find what Solanas did understandable is the great accomplishment of I Shot Andy Warhol.