But is this person really the “true self” his character claims to care so much about finding?ĭirector Justin Kelly’s first feature - although the second to get released (his sophomore movie “King Cobra,” also starring Franco, arrived last year) - is a soberly stylish, impressively non-judgmental portrait of a controversial real-life case of transformation. It’s a different identity, that’s for sure. It’s fascinating, like a winged creature of color and movement trying a reverse metamorphosis, back into a shell represented by conservatively cut hair, crisp dress shirts and stony eyes. To watch James Franco go from radiant, intellectually curious gay activist to brooding anti-homosexual Christian in “I Am Michael” is a physical, facial and interior transformation worth your ticket/streaming price alone.
