While Sal means to honor its subject, it’s too clunky and amateurish to really illuminate him.
40
The DissolveNathan Rabin
The DissolveNathan Rabin
Sal is so inconsequential, it barely exists. It seems possible that even Franco has forgotten it, in order to make room in his memory for the 74 similar projects he was pursuing around the same time.
Franco seems torn, on the one hand presenting his subject as a likably ordinary, self-involved actor and on the other sanctifying him as a would-be gay icon in a conformist industry.
38
Slant MagazineNick McCarthy
Slant MagazineNick McCarthy
It functions under the delusion that subtext will magically appear if you linger on a character long enough, and the significance of most of its scenes is nothing if not inscrutable.
38
RogerEbert.com
RogerEbert.com
The film ends with footage of his corpse on the sidewalk, and then a scene from "Rebel." From the first footage of the newscast on Mineo's death to this last tasteless film of his body lying in the street, nothing much has been learned about Mineo.