Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Pavan Bhat Howl, a movie entirely based on a poem written by Allan Ginsberg, one of the pioneers of the Beat Generation, with the same title, is one of the best examples that highlights freedom of expression, aggression due to social taboos, a writer's creative freedom and the problems associated with it and the consequences that a writer or a creator of a creative work has to face if he/she took refuge in the fact that creative freedom and freedom of expression are to be taken for granted. This has always been the major cause for concern for so-called unconventional writers. It is quite clear that mainstream writing has been reduced to a medium wherein the writer is merely forced to cater to the needs of the "reader" with conservative outlooks, as it has been for ages, instead of how it should actually be, i.e. a writer speaking his heart out. Of course, we have come across many such incidents in the past, and have also witnessed the writer's names not only fade into the depths of oblivion but also getting erased from all records and pages in the history books. Their identities and very existences have been questioned and debated for doing what they believed in and doing what they loved doing. In spite of the fact that certain works had literary quality, such works were the eyesores for certain conservative readers, yet the cynosure of all eyes for few others. Allan Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems was a direct reflection of his upbringing in a society strapped with moral, social, cultural and religious taboos. Writing was a merely a medium to vent his frustration and anger towards a society that treats its own people as aliens or outsiders. His works, especially Howl looks at the very same aspect of life with a magnifying glass. His homosexual tendencies, his world view of life's happenings and other views expressed in his poems put the state of mind of the writer under the scanner, as it was evident from the clear disregard of the writer towards the needs of the readers and placing his own manifestations of thoughts ahead of all else, which is very important for any writer to represent any true work with a degree of authenticity. Talking about the movie in particular, the movie has been handled with utmost care. The director of the movie has taken good measures to ensure that the legacy of Allan Ginsberg lives on, whilst providing cues to other such similar or upcoming unconventional writers to come out of their shells. What makes it more special is the fact that conservatism was at its peak in the 1950s and that was exactly when Allan Ginsberg made his works public. This served as an inspiration to millions of non-conservationists who were trying really hard to express themselves and emerge out of their cocoons to stand against people who opposed radical changes. The Hippie culture, censorship in movies, inter-racial romance and many other taboos in the 1950s took the driving seat for most part of the 1960s and has since stayed strongly with us. The taboos of the 50s or until the 60s, finally gained a moral victory over the so-called conservationists, thereby opening up a plethora of new ideas to think, debate, analyze and ponder about. This sudden change also influenced the way people started thinking, the various cultures and a bevy of other organized structures. Howl and other poems was a major and prominent part of the victors' side. Freedom of expression, creative freedom, emerging out of one's "moral" shell and various other aspects that were previously considered to be taboo derived new-found meanings which facilitated more and more creative works of literature and art to be created and made public, which surprisingly found many takers from the opposite camp as well... This evoked a sense of awakening in the minds of the people to open up to a playground of unheard ideas and thoughts. The brainchild of imagination was the surreal movement, which started gathering momentum in the 1970s. Interconnected threads – Allan Ginsberg's life experiences and the way it is received by the readers and the society as a whole, and how a candid interpretation of a writer is blown out of proportion and dramatized forms the core of the movie. It also has its share of animated sequences with a hint of surreal treatment, probably to suggest the fact that imagination is like an open field where anyone can achieve anything and infinite dreams can be realized. The crux of Allan Ginsberg's Howl and other poems has been replicated with intricate detailing and juxtapositions of contrasting thoughts of the readers who testify for and against the writer at the obscenity trial. On a biopic-style ending point of view, Allan Ginsberg's life has been documented in facts on screen. There is an almost surreal treatment to the film, with the animated sequences in perfect amalgamation with certain key elements in Allan Ginsberg's life, or to be precise, one particular incident in his life of major significance, Howl and its almost ridiculous and astounding obscenity trial. The film and the book, in particular, was certainly an eyeopener to many a people in terms of its literary treatment and gave heart- felt writing a whole new meaning and dimension.

l_rawjalaurence Inspired by the Allan Ginsberg poem of the same name, HOWL shows the eponymous hero (James Franco) reading the work out lout to a group of fellow-poets in San Francisco. The work obviously inspired extreme passions: the audience listen in rapt attention to a work that depicts the poet's feelings through an earthy yet compelling idiom. In an attempt to show how the poem might work, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman introduce a series of animated sequences; none of them try to 'explain' the work, but rather show how Ginsberg's language works associatively, inspiring moods rather than following any logical sequence. When the work was first published in the mid-Fifities, it was the subject of a famous obscenity trial: Epstein and Friedman restage that trial, showing how the poem was criticized for its apparent earthiness of language, and then cleared on the grounds that Ginsberg was only following the principle of free speech. HOWL is an enthralling piece, encouraging viewers not to 'understand' the significance of the poem in terms of meaning, but to see it as symptomatic of a particular moment in American history, when old taboos and/or standards of moral or civilized behavior were subject to intense scrutiny. The conservatism of the early Fifties had been superseded by a new spirit of adventure, encapsulated in Ginsberg's work, that looked forward to the spirit of the Sixties. James Franco offers a convincing characterization of Ginsberg, supported by memorable cameos from David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, and Bob Balaban as the main protagonists in the court case.

MisterWhiplash Howl might be a one-of-a-kind film experience if not for Chicago 10, another film that blended documentary, dramatization and animation together into a blender of personal history. But what sets this film apart from that and all others is that poetry becomes interwoven into a courtroom trial procedural - all, apparently, taken from the actual court transcripts of what the prosecution/defense asked of the people on the stand - so that it becomes about free speech. At the same time it's a quasi-biopic on Allen Ginsberg, who was a real free spirit, but also a shy Jewish kid from New York city who lost his mother as a child and worried about writing poems that might irk the ire of his father (he even considered not publishing Howl for that reason).It's a beautifully surreal little treat of a film that treats its subject seriously while also giving life to the epic poem that stays timeless, as with Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (which also gets name- dropped here). The filmmakers bring together the poetic readings - done by James Franco, one of his real 'embodiment' performances like Saul in Pineapple Express that is basically stunning - from in front of a live audience (where one sees how Ginsberg at first has an audience patient and waiting and then is full of life and looking forward to every next thing he says) and in animation. The poem becomes alive through the low-budget drawings, and depending on the stanza it can be at least acceptable and at most mind-blowing. You almost want the poem to go longer to sink in deeper to those Ginsberg stanzas that flow out with what appears to be stream of consciousness, but really has a structure to it.Acting is fantastic - David Straithairn, Jon Hamm and in a one-scene keeper Jeff Daniels - Franco keeps things moving so well with his performance, and the poem is given it's best context in personal and social history. All of a sudden, thanks to a film like this, the material becomes alive again, like a student picking it up and sinking into it for the first time.

Lee Eisenberg Probably nothing symbolizes the beatnik era more than Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl", not just because of its subject matter but also because of the obscenity trial that it sparked. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's movie "Howl" tells the story of this. The film consists of three interspersed sequences: Ginsberg (James Franco) discusses his world views, the poem gets depicted in animation, and the trial. Franco is great as the anti-conformist poet, talking about his experiences with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and speaking frankly about his homosexuality. The part about the trial of course confirms that free speech is useless if everyone is forced to employ "agreeable" language, especially when addressing society's problems.So, "Howl" is truly one that I recommend. Some people might still argue, as Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) does, that certain speech is inappropriate in certain conditions, but the purpose of the First Amendment is that people are supposed to be allowed to say whatever they want, even if it's not the most popular thing to say.Also starring Jon Hamm, Alessandro Nivola, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Bob Balaban, Treat Williams, Aaron Tveit and Jon Prescott.