As both a celebration and an exploration of one of the literary cornerstones of the counter-culture movement, fronted by indie darling James Franco, it's unsurprising this hyper-stylized account of Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem and the bruhaha surrounding its publication rode a wave of must-see hype all the way to opening night at Sundance. That it came out the other side with nary a whimper should tell you a lot. Disjointed and rambling, Howl is a frustrating watch that is both overly-showy and yet oddly dull in equal measure.
While co-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey indisputably both accomplished non-fiction filmmakers (they boast three Academy Awards between them) they are clearly all at sea here. Unsure how to approach their subject matter they demonstrate a keen eye for striking composition and are clearly handy in the edit suite, but demonstrate little in the way of dramatic flair. With a wealth of archive interview material with the man himself in one hand, and one of the finest actors of his generation in the other, their collective indecision sees them strike out on three wildly diverging tangents that are neither satisfying as single entities, nor coherent enough to function as a collective hole.
Either unwilling or unable to whittle down Ginsberg's many hours of spoken recordings into a narrative script, the directorial duo simply have Franco reenact large portions of them to camera. Boxed into such a rigid interpretation the talented actor, clearly desperate for something to get his hooks into, overemphasizes tics and mannerisms to the point of artifice. Meanwhile, black and white flashbacks illustrate the formative years of his telling, his many hedonistic encounters and yearning for human connection. Finally, there is the courtroom hearing in which the thoroughly wasted pairing of David Strathairn and Jon Hamm, as prosecutor and council for the defense, respectively, argue before a judge the landmark obscenity case brought about in response to the publication of Ginsberg's incendiary verse.
Driven by the need to be as faithful to their subject as possible, their documentary instincts betray them leading the inexperienced pair down a blind ally of literal word-for-word interpretation of both the courtroom transcripts and Ginsberg's interviews. Using only that which is on the record is fine in theory, but as anyone who has ever made the mistake of recording their 'funny' friends at a party has found out, real-world chatter is banal to the extreme. Interesting is not the same as dramatic.
This unfortunate truth renders the courtroom back-and-forth in particular as shockingly inert. Law & Order and Jack Nicholson lied to us! David Straitharn plucks a bog-standard repressed stiff off the shelf and Jon Hamm comes over like he agreed to do the scene in his lunch break from shooting Mad Men and the time constraints meant that the easiest thing to do was to just stay in both character and wardrobe. In retrospect the end the explanation that precedes the film - that everything in the picture was spoken by actual persons and in that way it is like a documentary, but in every other respect not - seems less like clarity and more a subtle admission of guilt from filmmakers likely as frustrated by the end product as the people who bought a ticket hoping to be enlightened and entertained.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Quality extras include a feature length commentary track from co-directors Friedman and Epstein, alongside James Franco. A decent making-of takes in thoughts from the principle cast. Extras also include the original taped recordings from which much of the story is drawn. Features also include James Franco's audio reading of Howl, along with a rare reading from Ginsberg recorded in 1995. Blu-ray exclusive features include Ginsberg's readings of Sunflower Sutra and Pull My Daisy, also taken from 1995. Also a Q&A with co-directors and Franco taken from the Provincetown Film Festival.
"Howl" is on sale January 4, 2011 and is rated R. Animation, Documentary, Drama. Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman. Written by Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman. Starring David Strathairn, James Franco, Jeff Daniels, Jon Hamm, Mary Louise Parker, Bob Balaban, Aaron Tveit.
