Fridae

Augusten Burroughs is currently the hottest gay writer in America. His first two books, Running with Scissors and Dry, were non-fiction bestsellers which recounted his zany memories of growing up in two dysfunctional homes and recovering from alcoholism respectively. Running with Scissors, which has been made into a film, stars some truly talented actors such as Annette Benning, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes and Evan Rachel Wood. But even though all these actors give superb performances, it's still hard for the ordinary moviegoer to believe everything that goes on in the film, simply because it's just so weird and wacky.

Did Augusten exaggerate the facts of his life simply to produce an interesting memoir? No one, except Augusten, may ever know.

Joseph Cross plays the young Augusten, a bright and sensitive teenager growing up in the 1970s with his eccentric poet mother (Annette Benning) and alcoholic father (Alec Baldwin) who can't stop screaming at each other. According to his mother's shrink (Brian Cox), Augusten's home environment is just ripe for any boy to turn gay - and of course, Augusten does/already is. His mother dumps him at the home of her shrink where he grows up among the shrink's strange adopted children, including one unstable schizophrenic (Joseph Fiennes) whom he starts to have sex with. Things just get weirder and weirder, until Augusten decides to run off to New York to become a writer.

Depending on your taste, you may find Running with Scissors either hysterically funny or just plain hysterical. Scene after scene, the characters are screaming or ranting or saying psycho-babblish remarks to one another. First-time writer-director Ryan Murphy certainly had his work cut out for him, what with all the crazy characters that populate Augusten's universe. All things considered, Ryan does a fairly competent job.

Watch this only if you have a strong gut, a keen sense of irony and a fine appreciation for the theatrical.