[Review]Kill Your Darlings (2013)

actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall

director: John Krokidas

Edge and Back: 7.5/10

Allen Ginsberg: Some things, once you’ve loved them, become yours forever./And if you try to let them go… /They only circle back and return to you./They become part of who you are… Lucien Carr: …or they destroy you.

Ever wondered who Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs were and what’s the deal with the Beat Generation – in case American post- World War II literature wasn’t your cup of tea at school and Wikipedia isn’t providing juicy details? Well, this the movie for you complete with a murder that brought these men together.

Long story short, Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) is an inexperienced freshman at Columbia University and there he meets Lucian Carr (Dane DeHaan), an alluring rebel, wits, charm and a dedication to turn the tables around on what the academic system preached at that time. The band is completed by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. The gang enjoys various escapades and tests their limit and in their mists lingers a certain David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall), a teacher who does Carr’s essays and a possible former lover of the blonde.

Now, what the movie might lack in action and keeping the audiences focused on who these individuals were and what’s the big deal about them, it wins with DeHaans in your face acting chops and Radcliffe desire to prove he’s more than the boy who played Harry Potter. The ink was spilled over the fact Radcliffe does a gay sex scene in the movie – it’s not a spoiler since every newspaper and their mother wrote about it, the scene only lasts a few seconds and it’s “tame”, the type of scene “Game of Thrones” would pass as a casual encounter between two male characters – but what the headlines should have preached more was the dedication of the two rising actors to prove themselves as capable thespians. DeHaan exudes wicked sexy charm as Lucien Carr, he can make you jump of a cliff and do his every whim while Radcliffe is soft and sweet, doe eyed college boy with a crush on the charming guy who showed him a whole new world. It’s a tale of growing up and exploring ones sexuality and limits and you have a murder as well.

“Kill Your Darlings” is dark and sensual and delivers a whole new vision of the Beat Generation. For those who have no clue about who these writers were this is the movie that might get them hooked and let’s face it, drawing the new generation into reading something else beside teen-angst-distopian literature – there are good novels and there a ton of copycats lingering in the realm between fan-fiction and decent writing – is necessary once in a blue moon.

If Dane DeHaan cruised through the part of Lucien like he owns the lines, Jack Huston is left to be a decent cameo at some point as Jack Kerouac while Hall’s Kammerer shady teacher is the red rope made to keep you asking questions and figure out what’s the real story. “Kill Your Darlings” is another prove that Daniel Radcliffe is an actor who wants to challenge himself and his detractors – let’s recall “The Woman in Black” debacle – he does a decent job with the part however his potential is left to be seen in other projects.