Logan Marshall-Green

CANNES, France — James Franco's filmography is starting to look like a book shelf – and a very respectable one, at that. The 35-year-old American has already played poets Allen Ginsberg ("Howl") and Hart Crane ("The Broken Tower"). He recently finished directing an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "Child of God" (having first flirted with doing McCarthy's novel "Blood Meridian"), as well as a biopic of the late poet and novelist Charles Bukowski. But this week at the Can...

SAN FRANCISCO — When Hesky Kutscher needed to get across town, he didn't call a taxi. He tapped a smartphone app called Lyft, which allows users to request car rides. Minutes later, a black hatchback with a big fluffy, pink mustache on its grille pulled up. Kutscher hopped in the front seat and gave the driver a fist bump. Then they cruised over the hilly streets of San Francisco, chatting like neighbors until he was dropped off near Union Square. Kutscher, who runs a m...