Running with Scissors

What stands out first about Running with Scissors is the confidence with which Ryan Murphy establishes its comedy identity. Rather than relying on premise alone, Running with Scissors asks Joseph Cross and Annette Bening to supply personality from the opening stretch. The premise of Running with Scissors is established with useful clarity: A teenage boy comes of age in the 1970's, sent by his neurotic, pretentious mother to live with a jolly, vulgar psychiatrist and his eccentric extended family. That direct approach lets Running with Scissors use its 1h 56m running time for character, atmosphere and consequence.

⁠

The central idea running through Running with Scissors concerns embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Joseph Cross gives that idea a human scale, allowing Running with Scissors to remain accessible even when its world becomes larger. By returning to a difficult choice, Running with Scissors turns theme into a source of pressure rather than a message waiting to be delivered. The handling by Ryan Murphy lets Running with Scissors leave a little interpretive room, which gives its better scenes an afterlife.

⁠

Running with Scissors benefits from Ryan Murphy being capable of strong moments without finding a complete rhythm about what each sequence needs to accomplish. Instead of making every beat equally loud, Ryan Murphy lets Running with Scissors create contrast between pressure and release. The appealing elements never quite settle into a seamless whole throughout Running with Scissors, with the strongest decisions feeling connected to character rather than display. It is still fair to say that Running with Scissors suffers because emotional turns sometimes arrive before the relationships are ready, but the problem remains contained.

⁠

The most useful technical choice in Running with Scissors is performer rhythm, because it helps the audience understand both space and mood. Plan B Entertainment frames Running with Scissors through performer rhythm without letting surface finish replace character. Drawing on its United States background, Running with Scissors uses comic timing built around character to give familiar material a more specific texture. Cinematography, sound and editing meet effectively in Running with Scissors whenever a sequence must feel large without losing its human scale.

⁠

Running with Scissors is most involving when the screenplay allows the central character to complicate what initially appears to be a story about an important relationship. That shift gives Joseph Cross a more specific problem to carry through Running with Scissors. Working from material credited to Ryan Murphy, Running with Scissors reveals a difficult choice at a measured pace instead of rushing toward its largest turn. The later pressure around the wider conflict shows why Running with Scissors benefits whenever cause and consequence remain visibly connected.

⁠

Running with Scissors relies heavily on Joseph Cross, and the performance responds with enough specificity to carry changes in mood. The contribution of Annette Bening gives Running with Scissors a useful counterweight instead of merely echoing the lead. Brian Cox makes the smaller exchanges in Running with Scissors count, often through timing rather than emphatic dialogue. Ryan Murphy understands that Running with Scissors becomes more persuasive when the cast can imply feelings before the script names them.

⁠

My final view is that Running with Scissors provides a mixed experience best approached with measured expectations for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. Joseph Cross supplies the emotional memory of Running with Scissors, while Ryan Murphy keeps the genre machinery readable. A concern remains because emotional turns sometimes arrive before the relationships are ready across part of Running with Scissors, yet the better passages retain their force. What earns Running with Scissors consideration is not perfection but the presence of choices that feel made for this story.