It's San Francisco in 1957, and also an American masterpiece is placed on trial. Howl, the movie, clutching this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events which directed a new Allen Ginsberg to find his authentic voice as an artist, society's reaction (that the obscenity trial), along with mind expanding cartoon which echoes the startling originality of this poem itself. Each three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.