Howl [MA]

Allen Ginsberg was a poet, a counter-culture adventurer, and a chronicler of the Beat Generation. One of the most celebrated poets in the 20^th century, his book Howl and Other Poems sparked an obscenity trial that started a revolution and was a book that rocked a generation. 

What an artistic and poetic film. There are little or no films that successfully interpret poems visually, but Howl succeeded with flying colours. It is the truth universally known that the films that you’ve never heard about are the films that surprise and stay with you most. Howl was such a film. Filled with confusion, confession, poems, obscenity, and passion, this movie was a subtly powerful and very artistic film. 

Allen Ginsberg was a poet, a counter-culture adventurer, and a chronicler of the Beat Generation. One of the most celebrated poets in the 20^th century, his book Howl and Other Poems sparked an obscenity trial that began a revolution and was a book that rocked, rolled, and rattled a generation. 

As I mentioned before this is a real artistic film. It’s visually stunning and surreal, being a combination of black and white footage, coloured modern film, and animation with passionate voice-over narration. The mixture of all these different visual styles began as jagged and overwhelming, but then flowed smoothly and purposefully, almost becoming invisible as your attention is held by the poems of Ginsberg. 

The movie jumped back and forth through time showing memories and inspiration for Ginsberg’s poems and then jumping to the court trial that aims to determine whether Howl is obscene or not, and interviews with Ginsberg describing his perceptions and observations of the world and his work. It has to be one of the most visually interesting films that I have seen since Little Ashes, although not really on the same wavelength. 

James Franco stars as a young Allen Ginsberg and he delivered a beautiful performance that was enlightened, passionate, confused, brutally honest, and completely memorable. I love James Franco. 

Starring Todd Rotondi, Jon Prescott, Jon Hamm, Andrew Rogers, Bob Balaban, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeff Daniels, Howl  was a thoroughly engaging little film that was filled with confusion, confessions, poems, and empowering passion. It was a wonderfully powerful and artistic film.