The Best Mind of His Generation

A A A Comments By Susan Froyd Thursday, Oct 7 2010

The Beats never completely go out of style, and every few years it seems like another book comes along to renew interest in the post-war, mid-century socio-literary movement led by such luminaries as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg is now the subject of a new film, Howl, that explores both the poem and the poet, as well as the backlash against both.

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Featuring James Franco in a very realistic take on Ginsberg, Howl is much more than a biopic. It interweaves a straight — and transcendent — reading of the epic poem Howl by Franco/Ginsberg with the story of Ginsberg’s obscenity trial stemming from the poem and an indescribable animated sequence of pure Howl imagery by graphic novelist and illustrator Eric Drooker topping the whole thing off.

See it and get some added insights tonight when the Naropa Institute’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, of which Ginsberg was a founder, hosts the Colorado premiere of Howl at 7:30 p.m. at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street in Boulder (it opens in Denver Friday at the Regency Tamarac and will also screen again in Boulder at CU’s International Film Series on October 21 and 22). A panel discussion with Naropa faculty and alumni Junior Burke, Lisa Birman and Jim Cohn follows the screening; admission is $15. Reserve tickets at www.bouldertheater.com or call 303-786-7030.
Tue., Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m., 2010

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