9 of 10 stars. James Franco Directs this film raw, and I mean that in a very good way. It brings to mind brilliant Directors like John Cassavetes. I know Martin Scorsese has a great appreciation for raw Directors like John Cassavetes, and Scorsese always seems to have a degree of this type of Directing in his films, but his film 'Mean Streets' is the one that comes to mind to me. The Cassavetes film (though they are all raw, with different nuances) would be 'The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie'.
It is refreshing to see this type of Directing which is incredibly hard to do, and let's face it, other than Scorsese and aspects of Stanley Kubrick, Directors typically do not have commercial success with this type of Directing; these films are made for Film lovers that like watching beautifully filmed and performed movies. So I appreciate that.
During certain scenes, Franco will use unique close up angles, have the camera stay on the person listening instead of talking, go from a close up to filming from around the corner, go from a focused close-up to a blur of the ceiling. A bunch of little marbles that keep the movie unbalanced but having a clear Direction both at the same time; all those little marbles add up to a huge pile of marbles that bring Directors like Cassavetes to the forefront of my mind, and the artistic feelings he would bring to his films.
Franco stars alongside Val Lauren. Franco is really only in one scene and we mainly hear his voice as the Director of a play that Sal Mineo is rehearsing for. Lauren plays Sal Mineo great, and really hits the mark highly, without overreaching.
The film mainly focuses around the last day of Mineo's life.
This film should not get mixed reviews, and I understand why, it's 'artistic' in its approach, but it's a great film, a great piece of Cinema.
