It's evidenced by the number of credits he has per year that James Franco is wearing himself thin. As an actor, I've seen a handful of his films, his recurring "guest part" on "General Hospital" and even his Broadway stint in "Of Mice and Men". For this film about two time Oscar nominated hunk Sal Mineo, I expected so much more, but all I got was a glimpse into his doing regular daily activities, like going to a doctor, a gym, talking to an agent, confiding to a friend about a trick, and planning to move his L.A. play to Broadway, as well as make a movie where a controversial scene about gay rape is in danger of being rewritten. I never once believed that Val Lauren looked anything like Sal Mineo. Sure, he's dark haired and muscular, but he lacks the boyish look that even with a mustache (which Lauren does not have), Sal pretty much kept to the end. His version of Sal is presented as a nice guy, friendly with the cleaning lady, cracking jokes with the neighbors and inviting his gardener to his play. A phone conversation with the unseen Jill Haworth gives a hints but not much more than what you hear him saying to her. So he's a nice guy, all the more tragic for somebody murdered later that night, but this is a film, so where is the plot?The major problem with this film is the camera, often closely held behind two actors in a scene together that makes them completely blurry. Location footage of L.A. is blurred too, as if to hide 2011 in the 1976 setting. I used to know people who lived in the building where Mineo was killed, and there's not one closeup of it. I am sorry to have to report that this look at an icon I really admired is strangely emotionally empty, even if its director was passionate about the subject. A look at Mineo's rise and decline, then his hopes of a great comeback, might have had a larger impact, especially when the inevitable tragedy occurs.

Sal is the depiction of the final 24 hours of 1950's teen idol Sal Mineo.It features Val Lauren in the title role and it was directed by James Franco.Sal Mineo is a talented actor that appeals to teen-agers during the 50's.He was an Academy Award nominee and was known for his roles such as Exodus and two of the three James Dean films,Rebel Without Cause and Giant.Later in his career,he has become open about his homosexuality and tried to find his identity both as an actor and a director.He found positive reviews as bisexual burglar in his stage performance in a play entitled," P.S. Your Cat Is Dead".But one day after returning home from a rehearsal,he was stabbed to death.Lauren did a great job in his portrayal of Mineo.Too bad that we are left basically to only the last 24 hours of his life rather than a portrayal of his life and legacy in Hollywood.Too bad that Sal should have been treated better rather than just featuring his last day on earth where nothing is essentially told except his death in the finale.Overall,a better story could have been told.

The trouble with close-ups of two men eating lunch and discussing Sal Mineo's upcoming film is that we don't get much more than two men shoveling food in their mouths. I don't know why director Franco was so locked in to the close-up. Or why we get so much footage of Sal Mineo driving through LA in his Chevy Malibu. Without any dialog or view out the window, this is downright boring. The accompanying torch song (Pink Flamingos?) on the sound track was so loud I had to cover my ears. As for period authenticity, someone should have checked the script: in 1976 people did not use the expression, "You're good to go." —- not even the nurse as the health clinic.

Sal was on the line-up for the final day of the Carmel Art & Film Festival and with director James Franco doing a Q&A before the screening they were pretty much guaranteed a full house. And by speaking before the film, telling his intentions and motivation for making this film, he locked the audience in.On stage he said that his intention was to show the last day of Sal Mineo's life...without narration or explanation. This wasn't an essay, as he said.Sal Mineo had seen his star rise with two Academy Award nominations before he was 20. And then it burst. He kept trying, but he quickly became stereo-typed and the public turned away. He kept moving forward and believed in his talent and that's what this film is truly about... exemplified by his confidence, as he was one of the first actors to be open with the public about his sexuality even when that honesty was a career killer in every field.And that was one of the intriguing things about this bio-pic. Growing up in that era, when the news of his death was reported, I absolutely remember the implication. It was reported that he died in an alley behind his apartment and robbery wasn't suspected as a motivation.Even as a kid I knew what THAT meant. And I believed it to this day. Until I saw this filmIn the Q@A James Franco spoke of how the film was "slow" on purpose.What I think he meant, is that he wanted to contrast against the eternal question, "What would you do if you knew this was the last day of your life?" If you're healthy you'll never know. You'll wake up, brush your teeth, call your friends, have yet another moment where your mom completely pisses you off and you'll go to work.And no where in there, in your "last meal" or your last phone call, will you know that that's the end.James Franco was right in his description of his film. It IS slow. And at first it might drive you crazy (how interesting is YOUR life when you wake up, scratch your ass, make the coffee then brush our teeth?) But it is the mundane aspects of all of our daily lives that leads up to the power of this film.Val Lauren is remarkable in this film. He plays the passion and arrogance of Sal Mineo, an actor who believed in himself but was on the wain, in perfect, perfect notes. Which means, as an audience member I was thinking "get over your damn self" for a lot of the movie.BUT...through Val's performance and James' direction you actually DO get through those feelings to a place where every time Sal parks his car (in the "alley" that implied gay sex in the news reports of his death, but was in reality, the parking spaces for his apartment building), you have a feeling of dread.And a defining sequence of Sal rehearsing the play he was about to open at the Westwood Playhouse, P.S. Your Cat is Dead, shows, at least through Val performing Sal performing the burglar, that it's clear that Sal had the goods as an actor even though he lost it all. But not because of his talent.I know Sal is just a movie. And I KNOW not everyone will like it.BUT.James Franco created a portrait of an artist about to rise again. A man who felt his life turning back to the direction he felt he was fundamentally meant to express.And then he drove home and parked his car. And met his destiny.And now the review. I started off tired. Move it along, I thought. And I kept thinking that for the first half of the movie.And then I surrendered and thought, "What a sweet guy." And then I thought, "What a talented guy." And then I thought, "DON'T park your car in that alley!!!"The movie has stayed with me. I'll ALWAYS remember this when I re-watch Sal Mineo's films. Whether you like him or not, this film makes you a partner to a fellow human being's last day on earth.And with the final shots, I mean that literally.And here's the whole point of the spoiler alert:So stop reading, by the way....all the above is referenced before the credits so there were NO spoilers needed for anything I said above.The final shots of the movie, the actual news footage of Sal's death with actual footage of Sal dead on the pavement followed by a beautiful, beautiful close-up of the real Sal Mineo as he was interviewed about how it felt to play his death scene in Rebel Without a Cause......Man. Whether you like this film or not, I guarantee you will feel like you know Sal Mineo as a brother whenever you watch the real actor at the height of his career in Rebel Without a Cause.