Rob Epstein
7 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
"Kill Your Darlings" is not as kitschy as 2010's " Howl " (with James Franco as Ginsberg) or as dull as director Walter Salles' Kerouac adaptation, " On the Road ," but it's a muddled and silly enterprise that wastes a wonderful central performance by skinny, bespectacled Daniel Radcliffe as the young Ginsberg, whose virginity, bookishness, Jewishness, relative poverty and closeted homosexuality mark him as an outsider even after he is accepted to an exclusive Ivy League school.
James Franco did it a few years ago in the little-seen “Howl,” and now Daniel Radcliffe – apparently well known to the public for some sort of fantasy-adventure series – plays the even younger Ginsberg as a Columbia undergrad, exploring poetry, drugs and sexuality in John Krokidas’ energetic debut feature, “Kill Your Darlings.”
The entire cast (including Elizabeth Olsen as Jack’s fiancé) is excellent, and the film rises above James Franco’s solid turn as Ginsberg in “Howl.”
Perhaps because On the Road (2013) was so lackluster and Howl (2010) was so insular and specialized, I was not exactly looking forward to another movie about the Beat Generation.
Over the past three years there have been no less than four narrative films about the beat generation, starting with “Howl” in September 2010.
From last year's " On the Road " to 2010's trippy " Howl ," they've proven to be largely film-resistant.
Over the past three years there have been no less than four narrative films about the beat generation, starting with “Howl” in September 2010.
It seems that filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman had faced a similar challenge with 2010’s Howl, the creatively daring interpretation of the life and works of Beat artist Allen Ginsberg (played by James Franco).
While other adaptations of seminal Beat works, such as Howl (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 2010) and Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991) have incorporated biographical detail with the hallucinogenic imagery and experimental approach from the original texts, On the Road is a much more straightforward adaptation.
These memories are prompted, of course, by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's film version of "Howl", which opened here last year, and the Brazilian Walter Salles 's bold, faithful adaptation of On the Road, some five years or more in preparation.
There are also brief black and white dramatic recreations of moments from Ginsberg's life prior to writing the poem, featuring Todd Rotondi and Jason Potter as "On the Road" writer Jack Kerouac and his legendary friend and inspiration, Neal Cassady.
Lovelace (2013)
Directed by Jeffrey Friedman
influenced by The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), The Celluloid Closet (1996), Howl (2010)
Working with an excellent cast, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (“Howl”) — telling and retelling the story from different angles — deliver an intriguing tale even if they can’t quite get to the crucial question: Who was Linda Lovelace?
Directors Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman ("Howl") have attempted to make a 70's style film about the infamous porn actress turned anti-porn crusader, but instead cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards' ("Couples Retreat") Super 16mm lensing is inconsistent and the movie plays more like a made-for-Lifetime TV biopic than an artifact of the era.
As upsetting as that is, the script by Andy Bellin (whose Howl was also directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman) leaves out much of Traynor’s earlier brutality as her pimp that she frankly detailed in her memoir Ordeal in 1980.
Their previous release was “Howl,” the biopic that starred James Franco as the poet Allen Ginsberg.
"Boogie Nights" skillfully alternated comedic and tragic highlights, but "Lovelace," written by Andy Bellin and directed by the team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (who specialize in documentaries, and also directed " Howl "), has an apparent anti-smut agenda.
The directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman previously made the unconventional Allen Ginsberg bio-movie “Howl,” starring James Franco as the famed Beat poet whose writing went to trial on obscenity charges.
Dying old Dad is cute, too, hosting a party for his new gay friends where they all watch The Times of Harvey Milk .
In deciding how to translate Baldwin’s prose to the screen, Jenkins has done the equivalent of turn Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” into a Douglas Sirk movie (or put Alice Walker’s’ “The Color Purple” through the Steven Spielberg filter).
Still, like the rest of the film, they are beautifully photographed by veteran cinematographer Edward Lachman (" I'm Not There ," "Erin Brockovich").
The second installment, The Girl Who Played With Fire, stripped much of the Lisbeth-ness from Lisbeth, including her goth look, pissy attitude, and hacker skills.