I'm a Ginsburg fan and had just never gotten around to this film. I wish I hadn't.James Franco and Jon Hamm. Two total and complete newbie lightweights together in one film. What in the name of God do people see in James Franco? This cheap, poor man's James Dean-Dustin Hoffman wannabe. I'll give him credit. He is a major self-promoter. That's about it. Old pros like Bob Balaban make these pretty boys losers look like just what they are--pretenders.There are actors. Then there are stars. Franco is a star. That's his business. To suggest he is even remotely intellectually qualified to portray the great Ginsburg--an intellect of mammoth proportions--is like casting Bugs Bunny as Rhett Butler.Save yourself. Unless you are a Franco groupie. Then you'll probably be in Heaven. Of course, you also probably think Kristen Bell is a great actress. Good luck with this poorly produced and acted junk.

The film starts with the interesting claim that every word spoken was actually spoken.The film isn't a documentary, though it is very similar to one. It centers on several key events so that no dialog needs to be added beyond the historical. A reading of "Howl", the obscenity trial, and two interviews. Each is shown in parts to create a narrative with the suspense being the outcome of the trial. We see the courtroom, the defendant's lawyer, Jake Ehrlich (Jon Hamm) and prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn), Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban) and several of the expert witnesses. Here the debate was whether "Howl" was obscene and thus the book store owner was guilty of selling "obscene" literature. We also hear interviews of Ginsberg as he gives background information on himself and his poem. Eventually, of course, the poem is not ruled as obscene and the bookstore owner is let go. Several more intimate moments about Ginsberg's life, particularly his relationship with his mom are seen. It's nice to see Franco portray Ginsberg and attempt to imitate his distinct idiolect and mannerisms. Ginsberg always had a unique way of talking, perhaps a product of his New York, Jew upbringing or perhaps because of his experiments with drugs, jazz, and performing arts. The movie is a more intimate portrait of Ginsberg than I was expecting. I felt that they probably put too much emphasis on his relationship with his mother. A lot of lobotomies were performed at the time, and abuses in mental health care continue to this day. I would hardly put the guilt on Ginsberg, an icon of counterculture. Furthermore, I liked how Ginsberg was portrayed as a struggling artist. His success came, but it took some work. I also really liked the cartoons that were used to illustrate the poem. I found they complimented the emotional exploration of the film. I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone who's not a fan of Beat Literature, but I did enjoy it. Of course, I'm a fan of the Beats.

Inspired by the Allan Ginsberg poem of the same name, HOWL shows the eponymous hero (James Franco) reading the work out lout to a group of fellow-poets in San Francisco. The work obviously inspired extreme passions: the audience listen in rapt attention to a work that depicts the poet's feelings through an earthy yet compelling idiom. In an attempt to show how the poem might work, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman introduce a series of animated sequences; none of them try to 'explain' the work, but rather show how Ginsberg's language works associatively, inspiring moods rather than following any logical sequence. When the work was first published in the mid-Fifities, it was the subject of a famous obscenity trial: Epstein and Friedman restage that trial, showing how the poem was criticized for its apparent earthiness of language, and then cleared on the grounds that Ginsberg was only following the principle of free speech. HOWL is an enthralling piece, encouraging viewers not to 'understand' the significance of the poem in terms of meaning, but to see it as symptomatic of a particular moment in American history, when old taboos and/or standards of moral or civilized behavior were subject to intense scrutiny. The conservatism of the early Fifties had been superseded by a new spirit of adventure, encapsulated in Ginsberg's work, that looked forward to the spirit of the Sixties. James Franco offers a convincing characterization of Ginsberg, supported by memorable cameos from David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, and Bob Balaban as the main protagonists in the court case.

Probably nothing symbolizes the beatnik era more than Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl", not just because of its subject matter but also because of the obscenity trial that it sparked. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's movie "Howl" tells the story of this. The film consists of three interspersed sequences: Ginsberg (James Franco) discusses his world views, the poem gets depicted in animation, and the trial. Franco is great as the anti-conformist poet, talking about his experiences with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and speaking frankly about his homosexuality. The part about the trial of course confirms that free speech is useless if everyone is forced to employ "agreeable" language, especially when addressing society's problems.So, "Howl" is truly one that I recommend. Some people might still argue, as Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) does, that certain speech is inappropriate in certain conditions, but the purpose of the First Amendment is that people are supposed to be allowed to say whatever they want, even if it's not the most popular thing to say.Also starring Jon Hamm, Alessandro Nivola, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Bob Balaban, Treat Williams, Aaron Tveit and Jon Prescott.