7.5/10
This is James Franco's second directorial effort after his 2011 student film The Broken Tower, and is an adaptation of William Faulkner's novel of the same name. The novel is noteworthy for its stream-of-consciousness style and its unconventional storytelling methods (15 different points of view recount the story). Franco makes some stabs at attempting to recreate those techniques on-screen, such as relying heavily on a split-screen approach and having characters give monologues directly into the camera. I found that generally these techniques worked and weren't distracting, though I could see how one might call them self-conscious and gimmicky. The movie is good, well-acted by all and extremely faithful to the book, and I don't think it would be inaccurate to suggest a lot of the movie's success is derived from Faulkner's words. It's no great shakes but it's a competent, enjoyable adaptation and I look forward to Franco's next book-to-screen translation, Cormac McCarthy's Child of God.
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