James Franco shines as Allen Ginsberg

AfterElton.com previewed HOWL, the new film starring James Franco as a young Allen Ginsberg, earlier this week.

HOWL directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, (Common Threads, Celluloid Closet) tell their story not with interviews and archival footage, but by weaving together dramatization, re-enactment and wild jazz-soundtracked hallucinatory animation.

James Franco is compelling whether he's reading "Howl" to an entraptured Beat audience, chain smoking through an interview in a Rome hotel room, or dropping to his knees to give Neal Cassady (Jon Prescott) oral sex. 

James Franco, right, as Allen Ginsberg and Aaron Tveit, left, as Peter Orlovsky, Ginsberg's partner for over 40 years. 

AfterElton.com will feature a full review later in the year.

HOWL is showing at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 12, at the closing night of the 34th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (Frameline) on June 27, and on the opening night of the 28th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (Outfest) on July 8, after which it will have a theatrical release on September 24th.