AugustenBurroughs Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you didn't know better, you might find it hard to believe that the things that happen to young Augusten Burroughs in the film Running with Scissors actually happened -- and yet, they did. The film opens at a pivotal point in Augusten's life: His mother's decline into madness. When your mother is mentally unstable, your father is an emotionally walled-off alcoholic, and the two of them spend most of their time together embroiled in violent fights that end in threats of murder or suicide, it doesn't make for the most stable of childhoods. Augusten, who worships his mother and tries patiently to get the attention of his father, compensates by being a painfully neat child.

He obsesses over his hair being perfectly conditioned and styled, he dresses nattily in jackets and sweater vests, he decorates his mother's dog, Cream, with aluminum foil, and he boils his allowance and then polishes it with silver polish. When you're a kid whose adult support system is out of control, you take your stability where you can find it, and so Augusten carefully controls those things that are within his limited power.

Todd Field's adaptation of the novel Little Children by Tom Perrotta posed a lot of problems as he tried to cram the entire novel into a feature film ... so he rewrote it, literally. He hated the ending, and made some major changes, collaborating with Perrotta, who also shares a screenwriting credit on the film. They both worked together to make significant changes in order to adapt the book for into a film.

This isn't the first adaptation for either. Field wrote and directed Oscar-nominated In The Bedroom , which was based on an Andre Dubus short story. However, Dubus died two years before the film came out, which made it impossible for Field to colloborate with him. Perrotta's novel Election was adapted into a movie written by director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Perrotta didn't work on that script, however, since it was the first one of his novels to be optioned, and the movie development went into high gear and was in theaters only a few months after the book came out.

Two weeks ago, I told you about my distaste for many of today's young starlets. Well, I've realized that there is one actress who has been effective throughout her short career: Evan Rachel Wood. Now I'm counting on the 18-year-old to continue going strong in adulthood, and I think she's more than capable of succeeding. In fact, I'm so certain of her ability, that I'd like to make this prediction: Wood will win an Oscar in her lifetime, if not in the next decade. She just needs to be better recognized by the industry so that she can get the roles she's worthy of playing. Coming up for her are two films that might get her more notice: the Augusten Burroughs adaptation Running With Scissors and Julie Taymor's Beatles-inspired love story, Across the Universe.

Wood might face one problem in her career, though: She isn't into the mingling and partying that keeps most of Hollywood's young stars in the industry eye, as well as in the public consciousness. Already she's (in my opinion, anyhow) the most beautiful and most talented actress under the age of 20, and yet few people know her name. Personally I think that her wanting a private, quiet life will benefit her in concentrating on her acting -- though I don't believe that partying is necessarily bad for stars, and could point out many who are good enough to be a part of the wild life. Lifestyle shouldn't be an issue. Hollywood and moviegoers should just notice a standout like Wood automatically. Not only has she not put in a bad performance, yet, she has already carried bad movies like Pretty Persuasion, making them worthwhile viewing for her work alone. I also think she would be effective in any of the bigger roles out there going to the likes of Dunst, Lohan, Bosworth, Howard and the rest.

So what is it going to take for her to become the most appreciated actress of her generation?