The Sound & the Fury

2014

1h 41m

Drama

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List

22%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

The Compson family struggles to adjust to the changes in society during the early 20th century in the Deep South.

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Audience Member

Great movie. Benji is moving.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Kerry B

This is the most god awful movie on the planet!!! Franco needs to retire!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

07/30/18

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Audience Member

This is an excellent film! Does a remarkable job capturing the essence of the book. I can't understand why it has received so many negative reviews. Perhaps it's the story itself, which can be difficult to sort through--like much serious literature. That said, James Franco is creepy, and he seems to know this and embrace it. He's like a smelly cheese that offers deeply textured flavors to those willing to try a taste.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

Well acted, moving southern gothic interpretation.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

Stellar performance by James Franco

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Audience Member

You could say many things about James Franco and most of them are probably right in their own ways, but one thing I will say about the actor, writer, director, author and whatever other hat he sometimes dons is that the man is certainly determined. Seemingly never taking a break from his many on the boil productions, Franco has once more enlisted the help of his Hollywood friends in his directional adaption of yet another famed novel (following on from As I Lay Dying and Child of God) in the form of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. With this never far from depressive dramatic telling of the trials and tumults of The Compson family in the south of America in the 1920's, you can see as a positive that Franco is improving as a director. Where his work on Child of God and As I Lay Dying often felt like a slightly better budgeted college movie, The Sound and the Fury does seem more cinematic but no amount of cinematic gloss can help cover the fact that Franco's many varied flaws as both a performer and storyteller are on show worse than ever here with The Sound and the Fury, that acts as a borderline incomprehensible adaptation of Faulkner's no doubt tricky material. Segregated into three distinct chapters each dedicated to a separate Compson sibling, Franco's opening half hour stanza that focuses almost exclusively on his own portrayal of mentally challenged Benjy is some of the most nigh on unwatchable filmmaking you're likely to see, with a combination of Franco's grunting, bottom biting and dribble fuelled acting (which pays little to no attention to Robert Downey Jr's sound advice to Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder) and shoddily put together flash forwards and flashbacks mixed in with unnecessary narration, killing the film before it ever even really began. The film does pick up slightly as the focus turns to Benjy's other flawed siblings but never once does Franco and his team win us over to care or be invested in what plights these no hopers are going through. It's hard to know whether Franco is intentionally churning out so-so, or with the case of this film dire adaptations for the sake of it, to have a laugh at the audiences expense or he to in his own mind show his a real 'filmmaker" but watching The Sound and the Fury makes one question how much longer he can get away with it for and if I were to offer up any advice to the busy auteur, it would be to please go back to cameoing in Seth Rogen stoner comedies as it's a whole lot more tolerable and a lot less embarrassing for all concerned. 1 set of false chompers out of 5 www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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James Franco

Director

James Franco

Benjy Compson

Jacob Loeb

Quentin Compson

Joey King

Miss Quentin

Tim Blake Nelson

Jason Compson III

Loretta Devine

Dilsey

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The Sound and the Fury: Trailer 1

1:34

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Kaleem Aftab

Independent (UK)

This, Franco's most ambitious project, is his best film by far.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 12, 2014

Full Review

Jessica Kiang

The Playlist

Franco probably has eight other things on the go at the moment (among them no fewer than three upcoming directorial features) which could account for why his "The Sound and the Fury" feels like maybe an eighth of a film.

Rated: C

Sep 11, 2014

Full Review

Andrew Barker

Variety

Its surfeit of half-baked film-student flourishes and needless cameos occasionally give it an amateur-hour feel. But Franco nonetheless shows improvement over 2013's "As I Lay Dying," and well, it's hard to fault him for trying.

Sep 7, 2014

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Renee Schonfeld

Common Sense Media

James Franco's messy Faulkner adaptation has mature themes.

Rated: 1/5

Oct 27, 2015

Full Review

Glenn Dunks

The Film Experience

The Sound and the Fury is a step in the right direction for Franco the director, but it still doesn't quite suggest he's on the verge of something truly great. Yet, at least.

Rated: C+

Nov 17, 2014

Full Review

Greg Klymkiw

Electric Sheep

Replete with ludicrous buck-toothed prosthetics, plenty eyeball rolling, grunting and drooling, Franco goes further on the 'full retard' front than any actor in film history.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 28, 2014

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Synopsis

The Compson family struggles to adjust to the changes in society during the early 20th century in the Deep South.

Director: James Franco
Producer: Nesim Hason, Sezin Hason, Eddie Siman, Straw Weisman
Screenwriter: Matt Rager
Production Co: New Films International, Rabbit Bandini Productions, Picture Entertainment Corporation
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 12, 2020
Runtime: 1h 41m

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