BEFORE: Jon Hamm carries over from "Clear History" to complete a hat trick, and it's kind of funny, I've had this film sitting on my list for a while, but mostly as a back-up. I think I've had two or maybe three opportunities before to work it in, either as part of a Jon Hamm chain or as part of a James Franco block. But the timing never seemed right, every time there was a holiday or something coming up and adding this one would have meant one too many films, and so I decided to not squeeze another one in - I have to think about the year's total, too, and even one film too many could mean that I can't get that last Christmas film in, and end the year the way I want to. So I passed on this one, again and again.
And now, when I really need this film for a critical linking thing, it's still available - so I think this worked out well, regardless of the film's content or whether I'll enjoy it or not. Plus, I didn't think I had anything relevant to Pride Month, but now I realize that I do. The bad news, though, is that back when I first added this to my list, I think it was on Netflix, and of course it no longer is. Then it was available on IMDB.com for a long while, but oops, I waited too long to take advantage of it there, as a free movie. So it looked like I was relegated to PAYING for this on iTunes, but then I did a search just before watching and found it for free on some weird site, like PopcornFlix.com or something. Hey, it was free there, I just had to watch a couple of ad breaks, and I didn't have to download any malware or give out my e-mail address or anything. Still, why isn't this on Tubi or PlutoTV or Peacock or any of the other free sites with ads any more? That's not a good sign, it means maybe this film was ON some of those sites, and nobody watched it.
THE PLOT: As Allen Ginsberg talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.
AFTER: One of the "Beat Poets" make another appearance today, and I swear, I've tried, I've REALLY tried to get into them, but it's just no use. I was born too late to be considered part of their generation, by the time I came of age the hippie movement had had its day, come and gone, and we were firmly into the Disco era. Ginsberg, Kerouac, William S. Burroughs all peaked before I ever came close to learning their names or what they were all about - I suppose it's a bit like somebody getting into rock and roll in the 1950's and looking back on the jazz of the 1930's and thinking, "What the heck was THAT all about?" We are all a product of the times we grew up in, to a large degree. I watched the movie versions of "On the Road" and "Naked Lunch", and I just didn't GET them - for the first one, I didn't understand what the big deal was, and for that second one, I didn't understand anything.
When I did a deep dive in to rock documentaries a couple years ago, I watched some films about Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and the Beach Boys, and some of them were tangential to the California hippie scene, which also had a few ties to some of the Beat Generation people that were still around, like Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey - I thought maybe I could pick up from there, transition into learning a little bit more about the Beat Poets and the Merry Pranksters, but even my connection to the Woodstock era isn't that solid, since I was born in 1968. So as an infant, I didn't really have much awareness of the music scene, I only came to appreciate classic rock of the 1960's and 70's later on. But at least my interest in that era sort of stuck, going back a bit further to the 1950's and listening to what passed for poetry back then doesn't excite me.
Allen Ginsberg's popped up a few times since then, like in a couple of the Bob Dylan documentaries I watched last year, and as a character in 60's set movies like "The Trial of the Chicago 7" this year. Look, it's great that people like James Franco find something meaningful in his poetry, but I just don't understand why - and Franco is 10 years younger than I am, so again, I just don't get it. I think perhaps he's just always looking for interesting people who led interesting lives so that he can step into their heads for a few months while making a film. I get that Ginsberg led a life at a very critical time in U.S. history, and from a Gay Pride perspective he led the life that he led at what I'm sure was a very dynamic, confusing and exciting time. What did it mean to be gay in the 1950's, and to not only live it, but to write poetry about it? To live openly and hidden at the same time, speaking in metaphors about something that society wasn't yet ready to discuss at the dinner table? Sure, from that angle it all seems rather important, but even then, that's not really part of my experience, other than I'm human and I want equality for people, gay rights to all who want them, but because it's the right thing to do, not because it benefits me directly.
There's a lot of jumping around in time here, and you know how I generally feel about it - that's an editing cop-out, a way to organize your film when putting things in proper chronological order just doesn't work, either because some writer can't find the six-act structure or some director is just trying to be "arty", either way it's the last desperate way some artists depend on to tell their story. I only make allowances for it when it's done properly, when the time-jumping leads to a greater understanding of how the past influences the future, and vice versa, and that's just not evident here. This film cuts between interview footage of Franco as youngish-Ginsberg, with frequent flashbacks of the younger Ginsberg as an budding poet, mixed with dramatized footage of the famous reading of "Howl" at the Six Gallery in October 1955, mixed with recreations of the obscenity trial in 1957, where the owner of the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco was charged with obscenity for publishing "Howl" in a collection of Ginsberg's poems. Then in-between all of THAT are animated sequences of city life and people floating through space over narrated segments of the famous poem.
Yes, as you might readily imagine, that's a hodgepodge of material - and maybe it all adds up to something for you, and maybe it doesn't - it sure didn't for me. But maybe the more into the poem "Howl" you are, the better off you'll fare with all this. Or maybe if you're stoned and you don't want to think about anything while you're high this could be right up your alley. It sure made me want to take drugs. (Note to my new employer: Just kidding.) There's another obvious connection here to "The Trial of the Chicago 7", since both films featured court cases that put free speech and free thought to the test - at what point could the radicals of the 1950's and 1960's be held accountable for their words and deeds that were trying to advance human morality, but instead got labeled "counter-culture"? And isn't "counter-culture" just a buzz-word for "the stuff we don't like", because everything's a part of the culture in the end?
In the end, though, there are a lot of film sins (in my book, anyway) committed here that keep this from adding up to much of anything - it's about beat poetry (don't care), there are many shots of Ginsberg typing, or thinking about what to type (boring), there's too much time-jumping (confusing, to say the least) and then we have to sit through a trial - that's probably the best part here, and the man defending Ginsberg's work in court was defense attorney Jake Ehrlich, who was the real-life inspiration for the character of Perry Mason. (He was very good.). So OK on the trial, because who doesn't love a good "Law & Order" episode now and then? And if you love abstract animation sequences, then that's also a plus - just don't go in expecting "Fantasia", the animation here is more for adults, if you know what I mean. But animation, like poetry, is quite subjective - whether it's "good" or not is primarily left up to the individual on the receiving end.
There is another film called "Howl", released five years later in 2015, which is a horror movie - if you really want to see this film about Allen Ginsberg, for God's sake, be careful when you make your movie selection...
Also starring James Franco (last seen in "Third Person"), David Strathairn (last seen in "My Dinner with Hervé"), Alessandro Nivola (last seen in "Selma"), Aaron Tveit (last seen in "Premium Rush"), Mary-Louise Parker (last seen in "The Portrait of a Lady"), Bob Balaban (last heard in "Isle of Dogs"), Jeff Daniels (last seen in "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond"), Jon Prescott, Treat Williams (last seen in "Drunk Parents"), Todd Rotondi, Andrew Rogers, Nancy Spence, with archive footage of Allen Ginsberg.
RATING: 4 out of 10 angel-headed hipsters
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