Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

blackwolf33914 I am a true Beat fanatic, Allen Ginsberg is my idol and hero but this film wouldn't be my first source for history of Howl. While James Franco gives an almost perfectly accurate performance of Allen Ginsberg, even changing his voice to sound more like him, the film is a dim little light behind him. The facts are inaccurate in the scenes not about the famous poem, his love affair with Neal Cassady and the relationship with Peter Orlovsky. Reading Howl throughout the entire movie was wonderful, fans of the poem itself would enjoy that and the court trial was enjoyable to watch as they argued over the poem's words. However, this film is unable to live up to Allen Ginsberg in that its a historical film, inaccurate facts with a dull film. Watch it for the acting of Franco and the praise that Howl deserves, does seem nice to finally get a movie about Howl.

gavin6942 As Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.I do not know what Ginsberg's voice really sounded like, but I have to assume that Franco nailed it, because Franco is not known for his superior acting and he really goes out of his way to sound different on this one. Sadly, the beard looks painted on, and I never fully feel like the style of his hair and clothes is appropriate for the time period. Maybe it is, maybe not.Franco also deserves credit for portraying a homosexual. While it is not maybe as bold as "Brokeback Mountain", it still takes some courage. (One could also -- and probably should -- give credit to all the homosexual actors who have played straight all their lives. Think of all the women Neil Patrick Harris has had to kiss. Awkward?)

MisterWhiplash Howl might be a one-of-a-kind film experience if not for Chicago 10, another film that blended documentary, dramatization and animation together into a blender of personal history. But what sets this film apart from that and all others is that poetry becomes interwoven into a courtroom trial procedural - all, apparently, taken from the actual court transcripts of what the prosecution/defense asked of the people on the stand - so that it becomes about free speech. At the same time it's a quasi-biopic on Allen Ginsberg, who was a real free spirit, but also a shy Jewish kid from New York city who lost his mother as a child and worried about writing poems that might irk the ire of his father (he even considered not publishing Howl for that reason).It's a beautifully surreal little treat of a film that treats its subject seriously while also giving life to the epic poem that stays timeless, as with Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (which also gets name- dropped here). The filmmakers bring together the poetic readings - done by James Franco, one of his real 'embodiment' performances like Saul in Pineapple Express that is basically stunning - from in front of a live audience (where one sees how Ginsberg at first has an audience patient and waiting and then is full of life and looking forward to every next thing he says) and in animation. The poem becomes alive through the low-budget drawings, and depending on the stanza it can be at least acceptable and at most mind-blowing. You almost want the poem to go longer to sink in deeper to those Ginsberg stanzas that flow out with what appears to be stream of consciousness, but really has a structure to it.Acting is fantastic - David Straithairn, Jon Hamm and in a one-scene keeper Jeff Daniels - Franco keeps things moving so well with his performance, and the poem is given it's best context in personal and social history. All of a sudden, thanks to a film like this, the material becomes alive again, like a student picking it up and sinking into it for the first time.

viro-indovina In cinema the adage, "show don't tell", is inviolable. But if the subject of a film is a great poem and its creator, then "tell mama...tell mama all". Can you dig it? Can you get down on the rug that has been cut by angel headed hipsters, stained with coffee and seed, dusty from the hobo excursions to grand old hotels, from whose lobbies poured forth an Eldorado of silver plate, out of your seat, out of your mind, onto the mid afternoon asphalt, searching blindly amidst the broken glass, the blood and brown streaks, desperately searching for clearer vision?If you can, then I think that you will enjoy this brilliant movie.Howl is possibly the best biography cum literary movie I have ever seen.For me, part of its genius is in the editing of its three-part structure: a relaxed interview with Allen Ginsberg in his apartment; the obscenity trial of Laurence Ferlinghetti for publishing Ginsberg's poem, Howl; and Ginsberg's premier reading of this controversial poem to a significant and appreciative crowd illustrated with dazzling animated sequences.Cinematic depictions of poets, real or fictitious, seldom permit them to speak so clearly and insightfully about their creative processes, their motivations, and their innermost feelings as does Howl. In answering the unseen and unheard interviewer James Franco does a startling job of losing himself in the role of Allen Ginsberg. These casual scenes, beautifully staged and shot, provide not only a fascinating look into the mind of a poet, but into the heart and soul of a complex and genuine genius of American literature. The character arc that so many story-smiths will demand is artfully traced in these confessional and contemplative monologues that show us how Allen Ginsberg conceived not only his poem Howl, but a fuller understanding and acceptance of himself. These anecdotes and wan remembrances are recreated through flashbacks and montages that widen the cinematic range of this movie. Whilst hearing Ginsberg narrate the importance of family and friends to his self growth and self acceptance, we get to actually see him with Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassidy, and Peter Orlofsky. Some people rail against voice over narration, calling it a crutch, but it feels right in this context and never obfuscates what is being shown on the layer below. Perhaps this is helped by the tone that Franco as Ginsberg so evokes? Sensitive, yes; BS, no. The movie pays scrupulous attention to period detail, allowing the filmmakers to seamlessly insert archival footage that broadens the narrative of each scene. The fly-on- the-wall moments will undoubtedly be too few for fans of Ginsberg the celebrity, and for acolytes in the cult of celebrity. But it is the other two parts of this cinematic triptych that prove why Ginsberg's reputation was sealed by Howl and the controversy surrounding it. Firstly, the poem is a great work of art. Secondly, it was a crucible for a cultural reawakening and reassessment of values. The poem captures a moment in time as seen through the distorting lens of overwhelming emotions and flies so close to the sun that it acutely catches fire and falls back to earth in colorful flames, reviving itself like a phoenix of phrases and meaning. Franco's poetry reading scenes are way better than just a bit of slam vamping. He convincingly performs as the poem's creator, showing in every line the insights of feeling and knowing that this position would offer. As if this weren't enough, the film makers have enlisted the talents of an animator who actually worked with Ginsberg previously. The use of animated sequences during the reading of Howl may rob some people of a sense of agency; of their right to create images and interpretations for themselves. I've heard the same arguments about music videos. To these critics my reply is merely to close your eyes. The animations are successful as visual metaphors, illustrating with varied styles but recurring motifs a poem that deals with the banal as well as the mystical. Audiences become normalized, and these animations would be better received if more people were able to reject their conditioning and let these fantasies play out before their eyes in all their surreal majesty. In the third section of this movie, the anodyne culture that Ginsberg and his fellow travelers on the road-less-traveled were responding to is treated with equal verisimilitude, forensically displayed in the obscenity trial scenes; some of the best courtroom drama ever. Every character is perfectly inhabited by the stellar cast. The scenes deeply convey the gravity commensurate to those arguing for, or against, freedom of speech. This section shows the folly of trying to define and delimit artistic expression, and validates the importance of protecting expression in order to allow individuals and members of a free society to heal themselves and to better understand themselves.This movie is challenging on many levels, but if given a chance, it is rewarding on many levels as well.