Howl (2010)

A far-out movie about the far-out poet Allen Ginsberg? Howl tries hard to transform the energy of beat poetry into images. It uses spaced-out cartoons to spice the whole thing up, but the result is not enchanting in the least. The entire movie chronicles the life of young Ginsberg, a shy guy in horn-rimmed glasses and ill-fitting clothes. My memory of the film is mostly James Franco reading Ginsberg's poems in an embarrassingly phony way while a hipcat audience in the hipcat coffeehouse cheers on and while not doing that, he is serenading a rather icy Jack Kerouac. Avoid this film! If you have a desire to look at beatniks, go watch the Coen brothers' Inside Llewelyn Davies instead. Much better film, and manages to actually be quite far-out.