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Viewer Score

99
Viewer score based on 221 votes.

Critic Score

64
Critics' score based on 27 reviews.
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Your Reviews

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November 05,2010
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Critic Reviews

Not quite a biopic, not really a documentary and only loosely an adaptation, Howl does something that sounds simple until you consider how rarely it occurs in films of any kind. It takes a familiar, celebrated piece of writing and makes it come alive.Full Review

A.O. Scott
The New York Times

This film is a wonderful act of imagination on its own.Full Review

Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic

One of the qualities I like about this film is that the writer-directors, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, are aware of the time when Beat scene was new.Full Review

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times

Howl mixes a number of story lines and aesthetic approaches: We get glimpses of Ginsberg's early days as a poet, including his relationships with Kerouac and Neal Cassady, as well as a depiction of the trial, where a parade of critics and professors pronounced Ginsberg's creation either a work of genius or irredeemable filth.Full Review

Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

The trouble with the film is that it often feels too respectable for its own good, preserving the facts of yesterday's rebellion while leaving it firmly in the past. Happily, Ginsberg's words still cut recklessly through the years.Full Review

Keith Phipps
The Onion A.V. Club
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