'HOWL'
Thursday: James Franco can do it all, or at least he's trying. Though best known as a film actor (in movies from "Milk" to "Spider-Man") and even soap star ("General Hospital"), Franco also writes short stories (a book of 'em is due out in October from Scribner), does his own visual art, models for luxury goods and is completing about 17 graduate degrees simultaneously. This week's point of interest is "Howl," in which Franco plays beat poet Allen Ginsberg in a film that is part biopic, part history of the title poem's obscenity trial in the 1950s, and part animation. How it will all go together remains to be seen. The Walker screens "Howl" Thursday, and it opens Oct. 15 at the Lagoon. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls. $10. 612-375-7600, or www.walkerart.org.)
CLAUDE PECK
