James Franco does a mean, understated impersonation of Allen Ginsberg in this excellently edited trailer for Howl, a biopic of the poet centering around his most famous poem’s obscenity trial. The trailer cuts between the trial—with Treat Williams and Mary Louise Parker on the stand, and Jon Hamm, in full Don Draper gear, as Ginsberg’s lawyer—, black and white footage of Franco reciting “Howl†in a club, and color footage of Franco, with a very neat beard, giving on camera interviews. The whole thing really moves, and is polished and accomplished enough that by the time Franco is howling at a psychedelic sky, it seems like a cool, zany touch.
