Suffering from writer's block, author Stephen Elliott reconnects with his estranged father while investigating the murder case of computer entrepreneur Hans Reiser. Elliott, caught up in the film-ready twist and his tenuous connection to Sturgeon (they share a BDSM social circle), makes a gonzo record of the proceedings. The result is a scattered, self-indulgent romp through the mind of a depressive narcissist obsessed with his insecurities and childhood traumas.
27 March 1972, London, England, UK
8 February 1981, Allen, Texas, USA
18 August 1969, New York City, New York, USA
30 January 1980, Miami, Florida, USA
7 November 1972, Stuart, Florida, USA
11 August 1950, Albany, New York, USA
3 December 1975, New York City, New York, USA
22 April 1986, Austin, Texas, USA
28 September 1972, Sweden
28 November 1950, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA
8 January 1976, Washington Heights, New York, USA
December 27, 2016
The frenetic tone and uneven storytelling feels more like an outline for a film than a finished product.April 14, 2016
All affect and no personality.April 14, 2016
Writer-director Pamela Romanowsky, in her first feature, captures both fireworks and tragedy in go-for-broke scenes between Franco and Harris.April 21, 2016
Mr. Elliott's story is not helped by James Franco, who plays him with his usual smug catatonia.April 14, 2016
The Adderall Diaries is about nothing but itself. It's not fiction, it's forgery. It's not adaptation, it's erasure.April 15, 2016
Romanowsky attempts too much, and winds up succeeding in very little.April 15, 2016
"The Adderall Diaries" never commits to any of these paths in a convincing way - the true-crime saga in particular feels bizarrely tacked-on, as if Elliott was taking a break in the middle of his emotional turmoil to watch an episode of "Law & Order."April 15, 2016
A dumb adaptation of Stephen Elliott's memoir about (among other things) writer's block, a murder trial, and S&M sex. James Franco looks stupefied in the lead role, and the film's point remains murky throughout.August 26, 2016
... feels a little self-impressed and student-filmy, yet it allows its cast a few highlight reel moments.April 14, 2016
There are scattered subplots that never truly come together as a cohesive whole. It's a labor of love that doesn't successfully do its source material justice.April 14, 2016
"The Adderall Diaries" is a complex, absorbing, at times profound look at how we choose to remember our past.April 14, 2016
The Adderall Diaries comes across as an incomplete jumble of colliding plot lines.