Kill Your Darlings

I've been a big fan of The Beat Poets for a long time, have collected and studied their work, and have been especially interested in the biographies that come out occasionally as more information becomes available or someone comes up with a new point of view. I cannot tell you how much of the early history of The Beats gets pulled together for me in this film. Suddenly enigmatic toss-offs like "dropped out of Columbia after a couple of years and reunited with school mates later to become The Beats" are given real substance. Excellent script. Excellent acting. Excellent attention to all sorts of cinematic details that make the narrative flow smoothly from beginning to end. And, perhaps most telling, more interesting with each additional viewing. Perhaps most telling, for me, is the fact that this story reflects my personal experience in college. I knew young men and women who were as hell-bent on turning the world upside down, giving their pointless existence a real sense of purpose--however artificially manufactured in their minds from the remnants of thinkers of the past like Baudelaire and Yeats. And I was even involved in an obsessive relationship every bit as intense as that of David and Lucien but, quite by accident, without tragic results. So, I'm happy to find a great film that stands on its own, that pulls together details of the early history of The Beats, and that confirms that our collective paranoia so long ago was perfectly well founded--however different the outcome for us.

Being a fan of Daniel Radcliffe, I knew I was going to watch this movie when I first heard about it. Good, bad, or otherwise. I have to tell you, I was blown away. Stellar performances by Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, and Michael C. Hall. Several things crossed my mind while I watched this movie. First and somewhat comical was a phrase by the Divine Miss M "People were doing it long before we ever thought about it." Odd thing to think about I know when watching a story about Allen Ginsberg, however, the debauchery and drug abuse that went on, I was like "wow". Second thing that crossed my mind was not one time while watching this movie did I not truly think that it was the 1940's. fascinating time for music, which by the way was great. Something that actually took me by surprise was that Allen Ginsberg was part of the same "rat pack" so to speak as Jack Kerouac, the man who wrote "On the Road", which by the way was an awesome story in it's own right. However, It did not occur to me that the Jack portrayed in the movie was the same man. Not until the very end of the movie was I enlightened to that fact. Another thing that, I will not say was a downer so to speak, and literally was just moments in the movie, was the judiciary view on homosexuality. I was like wow, really? your kidding me. Over all. A very well made movie. Fascinating story that held my interest. Stunning performances. Awesome recreation of the 1940's. Wonderful music. And if I failed to mention it, I really liked this movie. While not everyone will enjoy this movie as much as I did, I recommend it.

Solid, greatly symbolic movie with phenomenal, realistic actors that really take their roles seriously. I think, to summarize the whole movie, a quote from Dane Dehaan, who plays Lucien: "This is a story that not many have heard but everyone should know about." It's a thorough story and gives people a deeper insight into the Beat writer's, pre-Beat writer era. Nonetheless, I cringe any time they describe Lucien and David's relationship more so as an "unrequited love", rather than a pedophile stalking a minor. Yes, this story is more leaning toward Allen Ginsberg's point-of-view, so certain characteristics of Lucien may have been altered, but mainly that's because Allen's diaries and journals gave more specifics and research-material than anything Lucien left behind. Overall ,this is a great movie and I am very glad to see it receive all the recognition it truly deserves.

Ostensibly the story of the genesis of the group of young writers who would become known as The Beats, at Columbia University in 1944. We are given the impression the catalyst for this literary movement was not the writers themselves, but their muse: a charismatic, volatile, rich young ne'er-do-well and his headline-grabbing crime of passion murder, for whom they were all willing accessories or enablers. Based in history but of course with liberties taken, the film offers a useful summary of the personalities and the time. The performances are believable, the script intelligent. But the film feels thin, reductive, and lacks the kind of depth and texture that would tell us something we don't already know about this fascinating subject. It's like a student film -- all earnestness, all literalness; little humor, little insight. But it reeks of competence: one gets the impression everybody involved showed up to the set on time, courteous, sober, cooperative, obedient . . . yawn . . .

Had most of us been associated with these characters back in their day, likely we wouldn't have connected with them. Kill Your Darlings solves that with a script and characterizations that make these counter-culture/subversives relateable and comprehensible while still giving us the essence of them. The film tries to do a lot, although handling scenes in short attention span deftness. It is all at once about the start of the counter-culture revolution in American Literature, The Beat Generation. It's about the coming together of these boys and the impetus that started their evolution; the pieces that clicked and sparked an outcome that changed things forever. It's about a murder and Ginsbergs coming out. It's about influence, obsession and loss. It's about how those boys challenged norms, and morality and the lengths people feel they have to go to be understood and freed. It's a glimpse into how suppression of human nature, creativity and spirit, even through nurtured cultural and educational herding from the most well intentioned institutions will likely cause a boil over. All of these themes were handled fine by me; they're barely touched on, just enough to make a point but lack a cohesive thread, a map of sorts. This kept me a bit at a distance emotionally. By all accounts the real Lucian Carr possessed an engaging, influential quality that enraptured people within the circles he ran. Dane DeHaan, though a fine actor, does not seem to possess those qualities, nor portray them well. The film is handled well enough to make it moot. Ben Foster is a favorite actor of mine. His William Burroughs was one note and obvious. Even though Burroughs was a great friend of David Kammerer, his pivotal moments in the story bear little weight. Whoever played Kourac made him barely matter at all. That all said the story is well told, from the perspective of a Ginsburg unexpectedly well played by Daniel Ratcliff. Ratcliff doesn't so much transform; (although better than James Franco in Howl) he fit the part REALLY well. The production looks top notch. Though missing a connection for all things, pacing steadily escalates climbing with layered plotting and atmospheric cinematography. Don't credit the characterizations nor events as historically accurate. It's like a story told years later with conjecture to fill in the blanks, by the descendant of someone who was told the story by someone who was connected. None-the-less, it's interesting, very well made, well acted and smartly paced. When you see a film produced this well, it's hard to imagine it was a low budget indie.

This historical fiction, period piece about the intellectual and sexual coming out of American poet Allen Ginsberg, was entertaining, informative, and indicative of the struggle between reason and dogma. The film starring Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg, Dane Dehaan, as Lucien Carr, Ben Foster as William S. Burroughs, and Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer told the story about the influences of older, worldlier, and more experienced men, Carr and Kammerer on younger, vulnerable, impressionable lads Ginsberg and Carr(himself both pupil and tutor). The action is set within the walls of traditional and conservative Columbia University where the metronomic beat of iambic pentameter doggedly provides students of poetry the drumbeat to which they are expected to march out their nascent works. But Carr quickly takes in the gawky, questioning Ginsberg and opens him up to the jois de vivre in NYC during the Bohemian era. The beautiful, blond-haired Carr is entwined in a relationship with Kammerer and trades sexual favors in return for Kammerer writing Carr's papers for him. Yet Carr exhorts Ginsberg to write, albeit to the mind-pulsing beat of amphetamines provided by the drug addled Burroughs. Meanwhile the clever, provocative, yet crafty Lucien pits Ginsberg against his jealous suitor Kammerer, who resents the close friendship between Lucien and Allen., especially his keen awareness of the incipient romantic and sexual bonding between the two young men. Kammerer, who works as a janitor, providing an apartment to which Lucien and Allen go to escape the stuffy confines of Columbia, jealously and mawkishly hovers over the free-spirited and morally loose Carr engendering a murderous hatred shared by Carr and Ginsberg for Kammerer., The story abounds with the pathos and stresses of Ginsberg's emerging sexuality and artistic development fostered in jazz nightclubs and under the sheets of Lucien Carr's bed. Further complicating matters for Ginsberg is the appearance of the cocksure wildness of Jack Kerouac on the scene as Lucien Carr's working class hero and rough-trade love interest.The story unfolds rather predictably culminating in the jailing of Lucien Carr for the fatal stabbing of Kammerer, the self chosen expelling of Ginsberg from Columbia, and the reluctant returning of Burroughs to the aegis of his wealthy family, showing once again that in modern American culture gay love must end tragically.

So well acted and overall well done. I felt transported into 1940s New York. So thankful I wasn't alive during that time period though. Daniel Radcliffe was amazing. The murder scene and the accompanying music was absolutely fascinating and oddly weird. John Krokidas definitely created a noir feel. Since all the real-life principals involved in this based on a true story film are dead, it would be wise to be wary of those claiming to know what really happened--especially antigay authors, journalists, and right-wing Web sites that clearly have an axe to grind. Instead consider reading the novel that inspired this movie and was written by two of the principals involved who were there: "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" by Burroughs and Kerouac.

Kill Your Darlings is a captivating look at the early lives of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs. Daniel Radcliffe shines as Ginsberg, and Dane DeHaan’s portrayal of the enigmatic Lucien Carr is unforgettable. With stunning cinematography, a gripping soundtrack, and a bold exploration of ambition, identity, and the cost of creativity, this film is both thought-provoking and visually compelling. A must-watch for fans of the Beat Generation or anyone who loves stories of artistic transformation.