John Krokidas's Kill Your Darlings enlivens the fortuitous meeting of a group of experimental writers including Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster) in New York City during their youth.
Not sure how much of the film is based on rhythmic verge (the facts).
That doesn't really matter.
It offers generalized insights into their introductory methods and innocently stylizes a literary ethos of sorts.
It focuses primarily on Ginsberg's infatuation with fellow student Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), whose being pursued by an obsessed thinker (Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer) who simply can't detach and withdraw.
Ginsberg grows and changes over time, Burroughs and Kerouac do not.
Kerouac's stasis is quite lively.
The film itself is sort of like a lively stasis, like a successful Not Fade Away.
The main problem's formal.
While wild moments and coming of age initiations are present, it's still easy enough to follow, like a crazy countercultural clutch, a warm and fuzzy bourgeois blanket.
More like the classes Ginsberg stops attending than something by Godard or Cassavetes.
Had high expectations. Loved reading most of these authors in my early twenties. Thought the filmmakers would have taken a more poetic approach.
Radcliffe excels as Ginsberg, reminding me at times of a younger Joaquin Phoenix, moving beyond the Harry Potter persona, establishing greater depth and personality.
That's good.
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