The film stars Franco, Tim Blake Nelson, Scott Haze, Loretta Devine, Ahna O'Reilly, Joey King, Jacob Loeb, Janet Gretzky, Dwight Henry, Logan Marshall-Green, Jim Parrack, Seth Rogen, and Danny McBride.

[7] In January 2014, it was reported Keegan Allen, Tim Blake Nelson, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Loretta DeVine, and Janet Gretzky had joined the cast of the film.

[12] Paul McInnis of The Guardian, writing from Toronto, said, "Franco attempts to recreate the book's impressionistic style and complex structure.

"[13] Andrew Barker of Variety felt that the film was "a folly, failing to capture the weird, entrancing, often maddening ambiance of the great writer's elliptical masterpiece, and its surfeit of half-baked film-student flourishes and needless cameos occasionally give it an amateur-hour feel.

[15] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavourable reviews".