Lili Taylor in one of her strongest showcases as radical 60s lesbian feminist and would-be art world assassin Valerie Solanas in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996, Mary Harron; pictured above with Jared Harris as Warhol and the great Martha Plimpton as her prostitute friend Stevie). Original reviews of Taylor’s work:
“You won’t be able to tear your eyes away from Lili Taylor as this abrasive avant-gardist. Taylor’s brilliant breakthrough performance is the stuff awards are made of. Since her 1988 film debut opposite Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza, Taylor has made her greatest impact off-Broadway (she formed her own theater company called Machine Full), in supporting roles on the big screen (Born on the Fourth of July, Say Anything, Short Cuts) and in leading roles on the film fringe (Household Saints, Dogfight, The Addiction). I Shot Andy Warhol should turn the cult of Lili Taylor into a full-scale parade. Her butch, bile-spewing Solanas is rich in impish humor and a vulnerability as moving as it is unexpected. Taylor, her eyes flashing with insight and incipient madness, finds the tormented soul of an outsider the Warhol crowd rejected as a “horrendous monstrosity.”” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone (May 1996)
“This film’s extraordinary centerpiece is Lili Taylor, giving a great, funny, furiously alive performance that deserves to put her on the mainstream map. Ms. Taylor, who has often played strange and vehement outsiders in the past (in films including Household Saints and The Addiction), finds a dream role in this film’s tirelessly combative Valerie. Tough as a teamster yet also oddly, even poignantly naive, she takes no prisoners when it comes to espousing radical theories or cooking up ways to make a buck. She’s equally willing to try prostitution or charge a $6 an hour fee for her conversational skills. “Fifteen cents, any dirty word you want,” Valerie announces, pitching herself to passers-by on the street. When she finds a taker who pays her to say something dirty, she’s got the word ready: “Men.”” — Janet Maslin, New York Times (April 1996)
“Lili Taylor plays Solanas as mad but not precisely irrational. She gives the character spunk, irony and a certain heroic courage (the sight of her typing on her rooftop, the wind rustling the pages of her manuscript, is touching). Variety calls Taylor “the first lady of the indie cinema,” and in one independent film after another (Mystic Pizza, Dogfight, Household Saints, Arizona Dream, Bright Angel, Short Cuts) she has proven herself the most intelligent and versatile of performers. If you had to look at all of the films of one actor who has emerged in the last 10 years, you would run less chance of being bored with Lili Taylor than anyone else.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times (April 1996)
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