James Franco is Hollywood’s ultimate homophile, but he manages to top even himself with the new film The Broken Tower, which he directed and stars in. Well, let’s actually be more specific: Michael Shannon manages to top Franco in a long love scene, after an extended on-camera makeout. In fact, this defiantly arty, black-and-white biopic of poet Hart Crane is studded with (and enlivened by) Franco’s signature attempts to explore gay themes; in the first fifteen minutes alone, he objectifies his shirtless brother Dave Franco (you can’t be mad at that) and then, in the film’s most notorious moment, fellates an erect, prosthetic penis (at least, we’re assuming it’s a fake). Take a look at the trailer below, advertising The Broken Tower’s current on-demand run, and decide whether Franco’s sexual-boundary-pushing is an admirable artistic commitment or a canny move to draw attention to his challenging indie. Or both!
