Review of Howl (2010) by Brad M — 14 Jul 2013

So this was interesting. But I'm at that weird place that I don't quite know if I liked it. First off, I wish I had read Howl before I watched this. Mostly because I think I would have understood better if I had read it previously which is recited throughout.

I just think I would have had a better appreciation of the poem itself. Something I figured out is I'm pretty sure not a word of this script was written for the movie. Every word spoken was either the poem, taken from an interview with Ginsberg, or from the court records of from the obscenity trial.

The way the three of them wove together was pretty cool. The animation that went along with the poem, was also really well done. I don't know why though, the most engaging part was the trial. It was really interesting (and also a little funny) to watch them debate over the literary merit of the more colorful imagery in the poem.

James Franco was quite good. You could tell that he spent a lot of time preparing for the role, and it showed. Overall, while it kept my attention, this felt more like a tribute to a great poet, rather than a movie.