Sal

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Ed . Hardly Sal-acious. Franco portrayed Sal's life up to his premature death as even more dull than mine. This film morphs from a workout tape to a PBS-like documentary that's just a bit faster than real time. Thankfully, Sal's life was before the internet and smart phones. As boring as it was listening to one sided telephone conversations, imagine how much worse it would be to watch a scroll-a-thon. The wisest or most profound part of this film was the regurgitation of Noel Coward's bon mot "Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow." This witticism applies to us all. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/29/25 Full Review l g so bad it was good. watched the whole thing in one sitting (March 2021). even rewatched the last 15 minutes a month later. i like Indy films more than a little. this one is that, in spades. it just missed. i say that knowing full well it's better than any movie i could ever come up with. still, at least half of the movie just missed. for film school it gets the maker(s) an A++ and maybe even an internship. for wide release though...? Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I went with 2 stars for this movie, I only seen it once I might watch this movie again idk. I liked that James Franco was true to portraying Sal Mineo and portrayed him well. The actor that played Sal Mineo I think did a alright job. Slow at times but gets to the point. I also liked that at the end of the movie James Franco did a tribute to Sal Mineo and played a clip from Rebel without a cause. He also showed live/news from the night that Sal Mineo was murdered which was also included in the movie. Pretty good movie I think that James Franco means/meant well in his movie about Sal Mineo and his life etc... alright movie 2 stars. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member For better or worse, James Franco has done exactly what he promised with "Sal", a look at the actors last day before being murdered outside of his West Hollywood apartment building. The downside to this is that we get long scenes that portray the mundane and uninvolving moments of the day. But, some of those moments come across as more real because of this. Good performances help, as does some authentic sounding dialog. This could have turned out terrible, but it could have been a lot better as well. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member I actually know quite little of twice Oscar nominated actor Sal Mineo -- other than his acting -- who starred in such films as Rebel Without a Cause, Exodus, Giant and The Longest Day. I was hoping that a film titled Sal might provide some additional information on the one-time star who arrived on the Hollywood scene with many lauded performances and much fanfare but whose star quickly descended as he became typecast and his open homosexuality prevented him from getting many leading man roles in the mid-to-late 1960s. James Franco directs this small film about the late actor and while it is apparent Franco wanted the film to be a tribute to Mineo there is little here one would be overly pleased with. Franco uses too many close-ups, he is obsessed with the male body -- the film opens with an overly long sequence of Sal (Val Lauren - Interior Leather Bar) working out shirtless and sweaty -- and there is simply no real story here at all. Sal is simply a filmed composite of the actor's final day of life ... he wakes up, works out, meets up with someone for lunch to discuss business, rehearses a new play etc. An audience never gets to discover who Sal is or dive into his personality or being. We see him move around and hear him talk (in close-up). There are a few -- like three too many -- scenes of Sal driving a car listening to the radio ... most likely because Franco and the film's screenwriter had no idea what to make Sal say. The film is most disappointing and after seeing this -- Franco's second directed film -- I hope he gives up his dreams of directing as he is much better (at times) in front of the camera. A film with Mineo's name should show us what made him special but this one doesn't. It is boringly bad ... and Plato deserved much, much, much better. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member The (intentionally?) very consistent & lingering rawness as seen in every other Franco's production. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Sal

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