Kill Your Darlings
This film is about the birth of the Beat movement and the part that Allen Ginsberg, acted by Daniel Radcliffe, played in that. At the start of the film, he is an innocent, a student at Columbia University, but, through his friendship with Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan, last seen in Beyond the Valley of the Pines), he is drawn into a manslaughter, resulting from sexual obsession, and the court case that follows.
This killing acts as a catalyst for those who were later the big names of the Beats, including Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs. The drama that revolves around it is described by Nigel Andrews as ‘a kaleidoscopic historic present of youthful horseplay, frenzied ambitions for revolutionising the world of art and ideas, and polymorphous teenage desire.’
The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in 2013 and the performances of Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan have been widely acclaimed. Peter Bradshaw, of the Guardian, described Radcliffe as ‘evolving into a formidable and potent screen presence.’
Click in Reviews below for more opinions and information.
Kill Your Darlings
Year: 2013
Country: USA
Cert: 15
Duration: 104 mins
Dir: John Krokidas
'a sexual, cultural and social-historical whirl'
Reviews
The Empire's Damon Wise on why this is an 'excellent film"
Nigel Andrews of The Financial Times gave it a 4 star review
Venue: William Loveless Hall