Howl

Director: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Cast: James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, Mary Louise-Parker, Jeff Daniels

Genre: Biography/Drama 2010

Running time: 84 mins.

Rating:★

Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) recounts the road trips, love affairs, and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless, electrifying, and controversial work of his career: Howl. Pushing the limits and challenging the mainstream, the passionate, and provocative poem Howl and it's publisher find themselves on trial for obscenity, with prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) setting out to have the book banned, while defense attorney Jake Ehrlich (Jon Hamm) fervently argues for freedom of speech and creative expression. The proceedings veer from the comically absurd to the passionate as a host of unusual witnesses (Jeff Daniels, Mary Louise-Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola) pit generation against generation and art against fear in front of conservative Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban). 

What an existential beginning? "Every word in this film was spoken by the actual people portrayed. In that sense this film is like a documentary. In every other side, it is different." In case you had any doubt it was 1955, it tells you and gives you footage, music, and photos of that time. The film is also begins in black and white. This is the world that Allen Ginsberg lives and writes about. This "documentary" and the way James Franco portrayed Ginsberg makes him seem like an typical egotistical artist. The surreal-impressionist, graphic novel animation of one of his poems is over the top. In fact the film's illustration of the events is as scattered as jazz, which may be the point, but it hardly keeps my attention. The past is in black and white, the "interview" with Ginsberg in washed out-dark contrast-blue undertones, and vibrant reds for the court trial. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!! I'm coming to this film not knowing anything about this writer and leaving it with a artsy-fartsy-root cannal drilling- bore of a film that made me turn it off 18 minutes in. I went to art school, I don't need bare witness to someone who reminds me of people I knew while in school on screen. I can walk out the door and do that in person. This film is like "OK I GET IT! NOW GET ON WITH IT!" Franco narrating Ginsberg's Howl is like listening to the adults of the Peanuts' cartoon: Waaah, Wah, Waaaaah. Shut the fuck up! If I was interested in reading Howl, I would read it for myself not be lectured about it! It's ashame to turn it off so soon because it's wonderfully casted. Indeed, the majority of the films today hold your hand through the whole film, so that you understand what's going on without having to think at all! However, there are ways (not black and white guidelines or anything set in stone) to be subtle and allow the audience to ponder and understand what is going on under the surface of the plot. This film does not. It's a film that took too many drugs, drank to much coffee, and hasn't slept in days.