Howl (2010)
Howl
★ ★ ★ out of 5
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman
Starring James Franco as Allen Ginsburg
Allen Ginsbourg is a poet, whose poem Howl is being tried for being obscene literature. We see him talk about his poem, as well as animation over a reading of the poem, and a court case.
Howl is a strange little experimental film that’s unlike any other I have ever seen. It jumps back and forth between interviews, black and white flashbacks, a court case, and gorgeous animated versions of the titular poem. All the interviews and court scenes are word for word taken from actual interviews and the actual Howl obscenity trial. The way the story is told is completely unconventional, and it feels a lot more like a documentary filmed with actors rather than a film. It achieves exactly what it’s going for, and the key to that is a line in the interview section, where Ginsburg says something to the like of “People have this idea of what literature should be, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” He wrote Howl as a screw you to conventional literature, these filmmakers made Howl as a screw you to conventional filmmaking. Of course the fact that it succeeds doesn’t make it good. I admired it, but I didn’t enjoy it, I found it to be incredibly stilted in the way the film was put together and the dialogue was delivered. The actors, even while saying real people’s words, all seemed to be just acting, no one made you believe that these were real words, it just felt acted. Even from James Franco, who is one of the best actors out there under the right direction, gave a really flat performance. Just overall, it’s an admirable movie, but it’s not very enjoyable. I would possibly recommend it because it’s interesting, but not for much else.
Palo Alto (2014)
Palo Alto
★ ★ 1/2 out of 5
Directed by Gia Coppola
Starring Emma Roberts as April
Jack Kilmer as Teddy
James Franco as Mr B
A group of teens stories intersect in Palo Alto. From April who has a romance with a teacher, to Teddy who gets a DUI.
This could have been a lot better, but it wasn’t really bad. The film is kind of a stylish high school Crash, with a look that feels kind of like a less-neon Spring Breakers. Now that may sound like hell to many others, but I love both Crash and Spring Breakers, so by adding those films up, I really should love Palo Alto. But I didn’t. The film feels very empty in it’s characters and plot. Not much happens in the film, but what does happen doesn’t feel very important. This all comes down to the character development in the film. The characters don’t feel human at all. They all feel very one dimensional, there’s the slut, the virgin, the partier, the “I act bad but I’m really good”. The character development needs a whole ton of work. The performances were pretty wooden as well. Which is surprising in a movie with James Franco, one of my favorite working actors because of his roles in films like Pineapple Express and 127 Hours. Franco actually gives one of the more wooden performances in the film, which was the real disappointment of Palo Alto. I expected it to be a mediocre film, but I expected James Franco to be the best part of it. Overall, Palo Alto is very lackluster in almost every regard. It’s never straight up bad, but it’s just always walking the line of mediocrity. I just wish that they’d committed to one idea instead of trying to force in four different story lines with a style that felt like a mix and match of Spring Breakers, and The Way Way Back. Also pretty disappointing that this was made by a member of the Coppola family.
Pineapple Express (2008)
Pineapple Express
★ ★ ★ out of 5
Directed by David Gordon Green
Starring Seth Rogen as Dale
James Franco as Saul
Dale Denton and his drug dealer Saul end up on the run from a drug lord’s hitmen, after Dale accidentally witnesses a murder, and leaves a joint of special “Pineapple Express” marijuana on the scene.
When I first watched this, I was about eleven years old (I know, I know. This really isn’t an appropriate movie for an eleven year old) and I loved every single second of it. I laughed and laughed till it hurt. So when I was searching on Netflix to find some David Gordon Green movies, I was really excited to revisit Pineapple Express. Unfortunately, when it started, I knew that I was in for the crushing of one of my favorite comedies of my preteen years. The whole first half of Pineapple Express was just a train of “legalize marijuana” jokes mixed with some fart humor. I did find that after the second half, the film found it’s footing, and actually became very funny as it focused less on the “lal pot should be legal 420blazeit” jokes, and more on the friendship of Dale and Saul. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s script for Superbad was spectacular because it focused on the friendship instead of the dumb partying going on. Yes, it was there, but it was a background to the theme of Evan and Seth’s friendship. It seemed like in Pineapple Express, Goldberg and Rogen lost their grasp of why their previous screenplay worked so spectacularly well. Thankfully, they got it back with This is the End. Again though, like I said, the second half of the film was excellent. I thought it was brilliantly written, and really well acted. Speaking of well acted, even when I didn’t like the film, James Franco was amazing throughout. He was the absolute perfect stoner, and seeing him in this role, then remembering him in 127 Hours makes you realize how damn good he is. Overall though, Pineapple Express was two films in my mind, an awful first part, and an excellent second. The two of them combined making a mediocre whole.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Spider-Man 2
★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker
Alfred Molina as Doc Ock
4th Watch
Failing college classes, and losing every job he’s given, Spider-Man gets a new adversary when his mentor, Doctor Octavius, attaches artificially intelligent robotic arms to himself, which gain control over his brain and turn him into a criminal.
I was a huge fan of this movie when I was a kid. Spider man was my life. I haven’t seen this movie in years, and decided that I needed to revisit it on my way to New York City. Like I said before, this movie was my shit back in the second grade. I watched it on repeat, and played the video game. Now, the film both blew me away, and completely underwhelmed me. Which was surprising. What I remembered being great about the movie, wasn’t all that great this time. And what I didn’t remember at all, but now can appreciate due to my film knowledge that I didn’t have back when I was 7, was freaking amazing. Alright, so one thing I remembered about the movie was how hilarious it was. I remembered laughing my ass off, and so I went in this time expecting the script to be really well written. Unfortunately, I have to say, the script of Spider-Man 2 is one of the worst super hero screenplays ever. It’s so formulaic, and filled with jokes that are just as cringeworthy, if not more than the famous X-Men “what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning” line. I laughed a lot, but it was more laughing at how poorly crafted the script was. Whoever wrote this obviously really needs some training in how to write realistic dialogue. That said, the script still managed to make for an enjoyable film, but not in a “damn, that was a clever movie” way, more of a “this is freaking ridiculous” way. But, what really blew me away, was Sam Raimi’s direction. I’ve always found that Raimi was a solid director, nothing brilliant, but his work on this movie was outstanding. I might even say this is the best directed superhero movie I’ve ever seen. Every second, the atmosphere was on point. The fight scenes had amazing editing. The way he builds suspense, when you know a robotic arm is gonna pop up, is just brilliant. Every choice Raimi made for the film was excellent. So yeah, in the end, the script disappointed me, but Raimi impressed me. No matter what though, it’s one hell of an enjoyable movie.
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