Howl Approved

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Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman's Howl, which premiered tonight at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, isn't half bad. Why did I just say that? It's better than that -- it's an indie, artsy, half-animated dream-cream movie that's basically an instructional primer for the uninitiated about what a wonderfully seminal and influential poem Allen Ginsberg's Howl was and is.

It's brisk, condensed, in some ways florid, engaging, intellectually alert and stimulating. You know what this thing is? It's a gay Richard Linklater movie, only deeper and more trippy. It's an half-animated exploration thing that contains scenes of actors reading and "being," but in no way is this a movie that plays like a movie. It's something else, and that's a good thing for me.

Howl is a "small" film, but it's rather wonderful and joyful in the particulars.

Howl is not a narrative feature -- it's a near-documentary that says "stop what you're doing and consider what a cool poem Howl was...in fact, let us take you through the whole thing and show and tell you how cool and illuminating it is." It uses Waltz With Bashir-like animation to illuminate what Howl was in Ginsberg's head when he wrote it, and what the poem's more sensitive readers might have seen in their heads when they first read it.

James Franco "plays" Ginsberg quite fully, particularly and well -- he gets the slurring speech patterns and pours a mean cup of tea as he's explaining a point to a journalist -- but Franco, good as he is, is subordinate to (or should I say in harmony with?) the basic ambition of the film, which is to inform, instruct, awaken, turn on.

For me, Ian McKellen's "Acting Shakespeare" was a somewhat similar experience. An accomplished British actor explaining and double-defining the joy and transcendent pleasure of performing, feeling and really knowing deep down what Shakespeare's poetry really means, and has meant to him all his life.

I've read Howl one a half times, but only now do I feel I really know it.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 21, 2010 at 8:03 PM

comment #1

Gaydos says ...

I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by Spice Girl musicals, starving, hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through the David Hasselhoff reality shows at dawn, searching for an angry fix.

Sorry, I was reading today's Variety and thinking about Allen's essential role in my own formative years.

And how I hope some other blue collar idiot kid out there is saved from our "culture" by a movie like this.

Will you thank the filmmakers for me?

Posted by Gaydos at January 21, 2010 9:12 PM

comment #2

Edward says ...

Well said, Gaydos.

Posted by Edward at January 21, 2010 10:13 PM

comment #3

DeeZee says ...

Jeff: So it's a less pretentious version of Chicago 10?

Posted by DeeZee at January 21, 2010 10:36 PM

comment #4

nemo says ...

God. A central work of 20th century American culture reduced to "a less pretentious version of Chicago 10."

Clang! Clang-ang-ang-ang-ang-...

Posted by nemo at January 21, 2010 11:02 PM

comment #5

corey3rd says ...

How many times during the film does Allen ask someone to blow him? Every time someone tells me about hanging with Allen, the story always ends Allen asking, "So, are you going to blow me?"

Posted by corey3rd at January 22, 2010 5:13 AM

comment #6

drbob says ...

" . . . . dream-cream movie."

I've read this sentence several times and I still have no idea what you mean by "dream-cream movie," even in the context of the other descriptors you use.

Posted by drbob at January 22, 2010 5:18 AM

comment #7

drbob says ...

P.S. I don't think googling "dream-cream" will give me the answer I'm looking for.

Posted by drbob at January 22, 2010 5:23 AM

comment #8

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Probably not, although you will likely find someone asking to be blown.

Doubtful it's Allen Ginsberg, however.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at January 22, 2010 5:48 AM

comment #9

DavidF says ...

Tell us what we REALLY want to know - does Franco play him JEWY enough?

Does he get nekkid and, if so, is he authentically circumcised?

Posted by DavidF at January 22, 2010 5:56 AM

comment #10

Eloi Manning says ...

I thought Franco was Jewish?

A glance at Wiki tells me he has a Jewish mother.

Posted by Eloi Manning at January 22, 2010 6:04 AM

comment #11

Josh Massey says ...

David Cross must cry every time he sees something about this movie.

Posted by Josh Massey at January 22, 2010 6:24 AM

comment #12

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"It uses Waltz With Bashir-like animation to illuminate what Howl was in Ginsberg's head when he wrote it, and what the poem's more sensitive readers might have seen in their heads when they first read it."

This makes it sound like a gay beatnik episode of Wishbone.

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau at January 22, 2010 6:43 AM

comment #13

DavidF says ...

I was being ironic as the last couple of times there have been HOWL threads one or two people have bemoaned the casting of James Franco to play Ginsberg given that the latter is Jewish.

Eloi, you are correct that Franco is too but that seems to fly over some heads.

Posted by DavidF at January 22, 2010 6:54 AM

comment #14

BurmaShave says ...

James Dean, Allen Ginsberg, who does Franco play next to hit the '50s trifecta, Adlai Stevenson?

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Rob Epstein, also credited as Robert P. Epstein (born April 6, 1955, New Jersey, USA) is an non-fiction filmmaker, director, producer, writer and editor.

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