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Howl

Opens today at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; not rated, but probably NC-17 for images and descriptions of graphic sexuality, and language; 90 minutes.

James Franco's passionate portrayal of the young poet Allen Ginsberg electrifies this biographical drama, the first narrative film from legendary documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman ("The Celluloid Closet," "The Times of Harvey Milk"). The filmmakers add animation and re-enactments to Ginsberg's words, underscoring Franco's reading of the landmark 1955 poem Howl — a reading so full of fury and heartache that it should be released as an audiobook. But the film's taken-from-the-transcript depiction of a 1957 obscenity trial, pitting a prudish prosecutor (David Straithairn) against an impossibly erudite defense attorney ("Mad Men's" Jon Hamm), robs a bit of the thunder from Ginsberg's classic poem.

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You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Opens today at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for some language; 98 minutes.

How behind the curve is Woody Allen? Two words: Viagra jokes. Allen's round-robin script pivots on several messed-up marriages in London: Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) has divorced Helena (Gemma Jones) after 40 years to have a fling with a gold-digging hooker (Lucy Punch, doing the same routine she did in "Dinner for Schmucks"). Their daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) becomes exasperated by her husband, Roy (Josh Brolin), a floundering author lusting after a young beauty (Frieda Pinto, from "Slumdog Millionaire"), while Sally herself develops a crush on her married and oblivious boss, Greg (Antonio Banderas). Allen tips his hand when the narrator (Zak Orth) quotes Shakespeare's line about a tale "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" — an indication that Allen has no idea what he's trying to say, and no idea how to make it amusing.

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Enter the Void

Opens today at the Tower Theatre; not rated, but probably NC-17 for graphic sexuality, and language; 138 minutes.

In his first English-language film, nihilistic French director Gaspar Noé ("Irreversible") goes to pretentious lengths to find the link between an acid trip and a dirt nap. When Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a Westerner dealing drugs in Tokyo, trips out on hallucinogens, Noé shows us his visions as rainbow fractal patterns cribbed from "2001: A Space Odyssey" (a regular Noé reference point). We continue from Oscar's P.O.V. through long tracking shots through Tokyo, even after he's killed by the police, when we follow his spirit hovering over the city and bouncing through flashbacks and flashforwards involving his fragile sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta, from "Boardwalk Empire"). Noé creates arresting neon-lit visions of nocturnal Tokyo, as well as shocking images of sexuality and its aftermath. But Noé's constant swooping through and above buildings — and zooming into more bright lights than a squadron of moths — becomes a grating self-generated cliché.