Review // Kill Your Darlings

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John Krokidas’ feature film directorial debut watches like Dead Poets Society on Benzedrine, with a great young cast riffing on the early founders of the Beat Generation. Daniel Radcliffe stars as a young Allen Ginsberg who falls into the world of drugs, poetry and revolution at 1940s Columbia University.  When he meets the magnetic Lucien Carr, he is pulled into a pattern of obsession and jealousy which eventually leads to murder.

The Beats are very much in style these days and the regular players are here; Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. However the film focuses on an oft-forgotten incident in the history of the counterculture: the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr.  Dane DeHaan is the standout as Carr, a performance which cements him as one of the most exciting up and coming young actors working today.  Radcliffe continues to distance himself from the shadow of Harry Potter with another interesting role, while Ben Foster and Elizabeth Olsen are engaging — though underused — as William S. Burroughs and Edie Parker A beautifully shot period piece, the film brings the feeling of World War II era New York to life through the use of music and costume.  New York City is always engaging onscreen, however in recent years it’s been used more as a backdrop for superheroes smashing into buildings than a living force in the lives of its characters.  As the young protagonist travels through the city, from academic campus to inner-city apartment to a dream-like jazz club, we wish we could travel with him, experiencing the city as it was at the moment of America’s first step into adulthood.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the film is the way the director portrays his characters  Avoiding the romanticism one would expect when dealing with such beloved figures, Krokidas instead injects them with the doubts and apprehensions inherent in young men.  While the film slows a bit through the middle — focusing on the young revolutionaries as they cause the type of anti-academia mischief that wouldn’t be out of place in Animal House — it certainly picks up in the last act as the darker side of their anarchist lifestyle begins to creep in.  A fascinating murder-mystery set against the genesis of an American literary revolution, Kill Your Darlings is an assured and engaging first film from Krokidas, and a great choice for film-goers.

Review by Evan Arppe.