Cinematography:
Edward LachmanComposer:
Carter BurwellCast:
James Franco, Jon Hamm, Jeff Daniels, David Strathairn, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola, Bob Balaban, Cecilia Foss, Aaron Tveit (more)Plots(1)
In San Francisco, 1957, an American masterpiece was put on trial. HOWL is a feature film about this pivotal moment in the birth of the counter-culture. The story is told primarily through three interweaving threads: the trial; re-enactments with the young Allen Ginsberg (James Franco); and the poem itself, animated by graphic novelist and Ginsberg collaborator Eric Drooker as a Beat Fantasia, scored by Carter Burwell. The genre-expanding form of the film echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. The re-enacted trial is the narrative spine of the film, playing out themes that are still resonant today: definitions of obscenity, the limits of free expression and the nature of art. The defense attorney is Jake Ehrlich (Jon Hamm), a celebrity civil liberties lawyer. Prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) tries to prove that the work is obscene, while struggling to understand it. Prosecution witnesses are an English teacher (Mary-Louise Parker) who finds the poem obscene; and a professor (Jeff Daniels) who has a very definite idea of what is and isn't good writing. Defense witnesses are 50s intellectuals (Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola) who speak to the poem's cultural and artistic merits. The conservative presiding judge is Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban), who delivers a surprisingly impassioned decision. In an imagined interview with flashbacks, the young Ginsberg muses on his own creative process and the personal struggle and liberation he had to go through. The poem itself lives as vibrant animation -- an imagined journey inside the mind of the artist. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
James Franco
USA
Best movies:
Of Mice and Men (2015) (theatrical recording)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
An American Crime (2007)
Jon Hamm
USA
Best movies:
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Richard Jewell (2019)
The Town (2010)
Jeff Daniels
USA
Best movies:
Godless (2017) (series)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Martian (2015)
David Strathairn
USA
Best movies:
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Temple Grandin (2010) (TV movie)
Mary-Louise Parker
USA
Best movies:
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999) (TV movie)
Treat Williams
USA
Best movies:
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Hair (1979)
Alessandro Nivola
USA
Best movies:
The Company (2007) (series)
Face/Off (1997)
Goal! (2005)
Bob Balaban
USA
Best movies:
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Cecilia Foss
Norway
Aaron Tveit
USA
Best movies:
Les Misérables (2012)
Howl (2010)
Premium Rush (2012)
Jon Prescott
USA
Best movies:
The Holiday (2006)
Howl (2010)
Maladies (2012)
Todd Rotondi (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Howl (2010) - a.f.
Phil Newsom
Best movies:
Howl (2010)
Taking Chance (2009) (TV movie)
Joe Toronto
USA
Best movies:
Howl (2010)