Movie Trailer: Howl
On the day that aMcSweeney’s parody/recontextualizingof some ofAllen Gisnberg’s most famous lines made a little ripple on the internet, it is appropriate that a trailer arrives forHowl, the film that chronicles the creation of the poemHowland the obscenity trial that eventually followed its publication.James Francostars as Ginsberg, and just as the film wasn’t widely praised at Sundance (David and Peterdidn’t love it) the trailer is only modestly interesting.
The AV Clubhas the trailer (non-embeddable for now) which I liked primarily for some of the footage of Franco as an older Ginsberg, and for the editing, which uses the clacking of a typewriter as a rhythmic underpinning for the piece. But as the younger Ginsberg, Franco’s readings seem more than a little over the top. Not sure I can take too much of that. But the supporting cast, likeDavid Strathairn,Jeff DanielsandMary-Louise Parker, look reliable and solid.
There’s quite a bit ofJon Hammsprinkled in the trailer as well. Between this, a brief appearance inThe A-Teamand the fact that he’s all over the trailer for Ben Affleck’sThe Town(which I assume we’ll see online before Friday) Hamm is really hitting movie screens hard. Finally.
Here’s a quick synopsis forHowl:
James Francostars as the young Allen Ginsberg, who is still trying to find his voice. The story follows the creation of his groundbreaking poem HOWL, and the landmark obscenity trial that followed. The film also starsDavid Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Mary-Louise Parker,Jeff Daniels.Rob EpsteinandJeffrey Friedman, two filmmakers best known for their documentary featuresThe Times of Harvey MilkandParagraph 175, make their narrative feature film debut.
