Beat Off
Howl
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Runtime: 90 min.
John Byrums 1980 Heart Beat is still the best film about the Beat erafrom Lazslo Kovacs inspired color photographic evocations of Edward Hopper mythology to Nick Nolte, John Heard and Sissy Spacek performing the Jack Kerouac-Neal Cassady-Caroline Cassady triangle, and Ray Sharkey in a memorable cameo as Allen Ginsberg. But in the new Beat biopic Howl, James Francos now tiresome androgyny (so soon?) asks for wink-nod approval of Ginsbergs hero status without adequately delineating Ginsbergs personality or the emotional tensions of the late-50s era.
Francos continued media assault exposes the directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedmans agenda-based drama. They all interpret Ginsbergs landmark poem Howl, and the 1957 obscenity trial it provoked when Lawrence Ferlinghetti published it, as a contemporary political cause. The cause itselfproselytizing gay culture as an extension of Epstein and Friedmans 1995 doc The Celluloid Closet gets confused with Francos narcissistic attempt at being a dilettante.
One problem is: Francos media-pet status fights with Ginsbergs own, and the filmmakers dont focus the impersonation. When Francos Ginsberg recites, its from a bully pulpit. Most of Francos performance happens as a monologue in an interview context, speaking to an unseen interlocutor. Its one-way acting that certainly worked for Francos memorably expressive loner role in Altmans The Company, but misses Ginsbergs connections with others (something the avid Ray Sharkey made clear).
Another problem is Epstein and Friedmans ambition to avoid biopic conventions; theyve conceived a meditative fantasia about Ginsberg, based on documentary material from the trial and quotes from Ginsbergs poetry. Animated sequences pictorialize some verses (typewriting becomes musical notes; a cartoon of a Negro, the quintessential Beat avatar, plays jazz saxophone; Ginsbergs erotic metaphors become phallic trees and sperm fireworks). This literalizing of poetry robs Ginsberg of his lyrical impact, as in descriptions of homosexual joy to which he gave a rhythmic articulation of feeling.
Attempts at making Howl an avantgarde film dont fail as miserably as Fur (that abomination about Diane Arbus), but it isnt lyrical or dramatic enough. (Trial transcripts re-enacted by sympathetic actors David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, Jeff Daniels and Mary- Louise Parker simply announce a clique.) Considering what Epstein and Friedman were after, its too bad producer Gus Van Sant didnt also direct in his obvious, though accomplished, poetic fashion. Van Sant would have known to at least keep Franco as flirtatious as he was in Milk.