Lovelace

First Hit:  Surprisingly engaging film although it lacked a certain depth.

Deep Throat grossed some $600+ million dollars. Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) made less than $2,000 for her part and she was a porn star actress for less than 3 weeks of her life. 

Being used by her husband Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) and other men was the basis for her book “Ordeal”.

The film develops Linda from a young teen, who didn’t like being controlled by her strict parents. As we learn, their restrictiveness came from Linda and family having to move because she became pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption which was a family embarrassment (back in those days that wasn’t uncommon).

Linda gets mesmerized by Chuck at a roller rink where she was dancing as a go-go dancer for a local band. As she experiences the freedom of being away from her parents she also discovers the controlling restrictiveness of being married to a controlling man. Chuck needs money so he convinces Linda, with her ability to not have a gag reflex, to do a porno film – and Deep Throat was born.

As her fame increased her husband got more restrictive and abusive. Except Linda, this film doesn’t dig into any of the characters too deep and even then Linda’s own personality isn’t explored too much.

Seyfried is engaging and pulls off, the innocence, lack of self-worth, and slow at finding her own voice character she needed to be. Sarsgaard is good as the menacing Chuck, although it would have helped having some background on his character. Sharon Stone as Linda’s mother was excellent and one of the better aspects of this film. Robert Patrick as Linda’s father was also very strong by coming across as smoldering, shamed, and withdrawn. I didn’t think James Franco as Hugh Hefner worked as there wasn’t the air that Hef created around him with this character. Andy Bellin wrote this script which felt like it needed to dig into the characters more. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman co-directed this film and for the most part it was OK but lacked a solid idea.

Overall:  Not really worth seeing in the theater but maybe at home.

Howl

First Hit: Excellent way to present one of the most powerful modern day poems.

I tried reading Howl some 30 years ago and just couldn’t get into it. Outside of an e.e. cummings poem called “somewhere I have never traveled”; there are few poems I related to.

Walking into the theater I was hoping to gain a better understanding of a landmark poem, known for its obscenities, the ensuing obscenity trial, and as a marker for “the beat generation.”

This film is shot in a wide variety of ways with it moving from one style to another. There are the interview sections whereas James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg being interviewed. The interview feels intimate because it takes place in Ginsberg’s apartment and he play Ginsberg as relaxed and at home.

Then there are the intermittent sections where Ginsberg is premiering his poem at Six Gallery a small nightclub where the audience seems to hang on every word.

Another way the director expresses the poem’s meaning is through animation which at times is interesting and other times distracting. Then there are the court scenes. Here Lawrence Ferlinghetti (played by Andrew Rogers), is on trial for publishing obscene material (Howl).

Through these different types of scenes and venues, the director is piecing together the social significance of Howl as setting a landmark of the Beat Generation. However, the club scenes, although try to look like the 50’s, don’t really feel like them. The court scenes were adequately performed but felt constrained.

The animation was both helpful but created wide stylistic mood swings in the film. The interview was the most effective at learning who Ginsberg was and how he came to write Howl.

However, the overall feeling walking out of the theater and the next day was that I did see the power and intellectual beauty in the writing of this poem.

Franco was totally believable as Ginsberg. There was nothing false about his performance, whether it was the reading of Howl at its premier or during the interview as he uncovered his life and how he came to write Howl. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman co-wrote and co-directed this film and it did feel like there was not a singular focus.

Overall: I was happy to learn to more about Howl and Ginsberg and in this realm the film did its job.