Running with Scissors

That the characters of Running with Scissors are based on those of Augusten Burroughs’ actual immediate and extended family is shocking. What a fucked up childhood this kid had.

His father’s an alcoholic (played to sodden perfection by Alec Baldwin). His mother Deirdre (Annette Bening, angling for an award of some sort) fancies herself a poet destined for fame. Instead she sinks into drug-addled madness and pawns off her son to her possibly insane shrink (the excellent Brian Cox) and his wacky family. Running with Scissors is creepy and slow with manic bursts of energy and gallows humor (and a great ’70s soundtrack); the ending feels tacked on, but there are some fine performance burried here.