Review of Kill Your Darlings (2013) by Manny C — 26 Nov 2013

Sex. murder, betrayal and lies are the center of this terrific drama/thriller set around the real life Beat Generation icons. That would be Kill Your Darlings, a brooding and beautiful film that burrows itself dark interests into your head and refuses to leave. Daniel Radcliffe permanently shakes Harry Potter off his back and delivers his finest screen performance to date as young poet Allen Ginsberg, a freshman at Columbia in 1944. With Jack Kerouac (an excellent Jack Huston) and William S. Burroughs (A sly, wonderfully witty Ben Foster), Ginsberg starts a literary revolution. In a striking, amazing debut, writer-director John Krokidas catches the Beats in the thrilling act of inventing itself, as well as coping with the murder committed by one of its own. That would be Lucien Carr (a knockout Dane DeHaan), a sly, promiscuous rogue who inspires many things but creates little to nothing, except for trouble.

Ginsberg harbors strong feelings for Carr that Radcliffe makes riveting and palpable, nailing every nuance and DeHaan is outstanding, exuding seductive charm that masks more crueler instincts. That leads to the eventual murder. The term 'kill your darlings' advises authors to destroy any instincts towards extraneous and ancillary words and phrases. Carr seems to take it as a life motto. When his older beau, David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) becomes too attached Carr stabs him dead then dumps his body in the Hudson River, enveloping his friends in the crime. It's a potent and fascinating sidebar to literary history that wonderfully evokes an era, grounded in excellent performances.