Bloodless Coup

Running With Scissors, The Three Little Bops

So my latest Netflix rentals were Running With Scissors and The Looney Tunes Collection, Volume 2 Disc 4. I rented the first because I'd liked the opening of the memoir on which it was based (the book as a whole, not so much, but the first section is really funny albeit in a disturbing way) and I rented the latter because I wanted to watch "What's Opera, Doc?" again.

The Chuck Jones classic did not disappoint. It remains brilliant. Brilliant! Most of the rest of the cartoons didn't really grab me though (except to marvel at the level of racism). But there was one exception, a Freleng piece from 1957 called "The Three Little Bops". That one is marvelous - it's the Three Little Pigs as jazz musicians, and the wolf desperately wants to join the band but is too poor a trumpeter. It's not at all like most of the Warner Brothers cartoons of the era - the music is different (they brought in a jazz combo), Mel Blanc doesn't do the voices, the stylization in the design is unusual - but while it might be unusual, it's also extremely well done and quite entertaining.

Can't say the same about the film adaptation of Running With Scissors. It's painfully predictable and obvious while at the same time being hopelessly and tiresomely melodramatic. And sometimes it falls into both categories, as in that awful montage shown while you hear "Year of the Cat". Now there is some terrific talent in this film, and some fun design notes - so sure, parts of it I liked. But on the whole it didn't feel to me like it really captured the whimsy present in parts of the book, parts simply looked wrong (everyone was suspiciously clean given how filthy the house was; why were Augusten and Neil clothed when lying in bed?; etc.), and some of the acting ... ugh. Sure I had a problem with how believeable the lead was in a few scenes, and hated the way Joe Fiennes was directed, but of course the biggest problem was with the The Bening. I mean I love overacting and scenery chewing - hey, I'm a fan of the first season of Popular after all. Mary Cherry rules! But apparently there's a limit that can be crossed, even for me. And she crossed it. Though perhaps that stems, somewhat, from reading the book and she was not how I saw Deirdre in the book. Anyway, on the whole, it gets a thumbs down from me.