Kill Your Darlings Review

[Westside Steve]

Kill Your Darlings

Sony Classics

R 100 min

Rebellion and change are two integral parts of human nature. So are love sex and murder. Every single generation has an inherent need to find a new way in almost every part of life.

Of course societal mores tend to move slowly but art, being a medium that lives in the moment is constantly changing.

Furthermore those artists, writers, musicians etc to change the rules and take off into new directions will, inevitably, be the old guard and pulling the other way when the new crop of rebels takes over.

We can list hundreds of artists who were influential during the many directions of popular music, same with literature and art.

The film KILL YOUR DARLINGS (meaning the need to do away with accepted structure in order to create new ones) has been intriguing to me basically because it’s a supposedly true story featuring 3 pioneers of literature namely Allen Ginsberg William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.(Daniel Radcliffe Ben Foster and Jack Huston) With the exception of a few comedic scenes featuring kids in the late 40's early 50's wearing sunglasses black turtlenecks and Berets while spouting free verse poetry over at avant-garde jazz soundtrack The Beat Generation has been largely forgotten.

Still these guys are to modern literature what Theolonius Monk and John Coltrane are to Jazz.

It is that angle that drew my interest to this film but, as it becomes quickly clear, that is really only the backdrop for a story of murder within an unhealthy gay romance. Don't get me wrong, I don't think gay romance is unhealthy but this particular situation goes beyond gender.

Soon after being accepted at Columbia University budding young poet Ginsberg makes the acquaintance of free spirited Lucien Carr (Dane De Haar). Carr is also in a relationship with David (Michael C Hall) who appears to be dominant to the point of manipulative. However as Ginsberg and Kerouac become entangled it becomes less and less clear as to who the manipulator is. This is not a spoiler since the opening scene shows David dying but the the film is actually flash back up to that point and beyond.

I found KILL YOUR DARLINGS interesting especially for a glimpse into the beginnings of an eccentric form of art and to a lesser extent a disconcerting view of a dysfunctional group of friends colleagues and family.

Ironically enough (mostly because this is a film about writers) I think this would have been a much better film with better writing and a clearer focus.

B-

 

WSS