I wish this had been released in theaters - it certainly should have been. I LOVE it, a lot. James Franco knows how to act and he plays James Dean to a T. I had no idea he was capable of Oscar-winning acting, although he's been very good in most of the substandard roles he usually gets. As some other reviews state, he pretty much steals the show, and every scene. Some of the other actors are good, and some are just ok. Amy Rydell (daughter of director Mark) is superb as Christine White, who was an amazing but underrated actress whose career died long before White herself did, and Amy did a superb job of it. Rydell himself was absolutely convincing as Jack Warner. The guys who played James Whitmore and Martin Landau were nothing too great but the guy who played Kazan was pretty good, as was the Italian gal who Dean was in love with. As James Dean definitely experimented with the same sex, it would have been nice if there had been a bit more of that in the film. All in all though, this was way more than I expected. I think Rydell succeeded greatly with what he had to work with - Dean's life was so short and most of those who were alive at the time are now gone, and as Rydell humbly admits in the closing titles, "some of it was an educated guess." Usually TV movies suck. This one SO didn't, though. I wish it had been about 30 minutes longer. James Franco though...I think way more highly of him now. He should never have done any of those films with Seth Rogen in them because they were so so so way beneath him!