Kill Your Darlings (2013)

There are very few people in the world that are as interesting as the greatest writers in the world were (or are). Kill Your Darlings is a biographical drama that attempts to capture the hectic musings of gifted writers and poetics while telling a gripping tale at the same time. With characters as interesting as Allen Ginsberg. Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs you think that would be quite easy. Unfortunately this movie has a lot of trouble finding a consistent way to tell their story and ultimately feels all over the place. Still I think this movie has a lot of really great things going for it and hidden within the tonal insanity of Kill Your Darlings is a highly poignant drama about some of America's best writers. This movie is unfortunately unfocused in a number of ways but it still has intriguing strands running throughout it that come to life due to a solid performance from Daniel Radcliffe and thematic honestly.

Kill Your Darlings tells the story about a very young Allen Ginsberg (who blossomed into one of the most awarded and controversial writers of the 1950s and 1960s) who goes to college and is exposed to many things that may change him in dramatic ways. He meets another young student named Lucien Carr who isn't afraid to speak his mind but seems to have some issues with his education and how he handles his relationships in general. The two become quick friends and decide to come up with a daring new concept for writing poetry and eventually become entangled in a sort of romantic/tragic/melodramatic circle of friends that are fond of getting in trouble but don't take the time to evaluate the realism in their situations frequently enough. The core of what this film is trying to do is wonderful but unfortunately this movie ends up feeling like two or three different movies put together. Maybe it was a bit dull at times but for a movie that is only an hour and 44 minutes long it certainly felt a lot longer than that.

This movie goes from being a gripping and stylish story about the early beatnik poets in the USA who are rebelling against convention and academics to a weepy drama and finally to a kind of murder mystery. It just doesn't work as a whole and I wish this film would have been more confident in choosing exactly how it wanted to tell the story. The first act of the movie was my favorite part and I loved seeing these fearless young men being somewhat reckless for the ultimate goal of creating art in a way that nobody has before. The middle is where I feel the film sort of fell apart. There are elements of the young Allen Ginsberg exploring his sexuality that felt a little clumsy and a lot of the side characters were very bland (which limits a lot of the thematic intrigue to one or two characters, mainly Ginsberg and Lucien Carr). You would think a person as interesting as William S Burroughs would be a more important part of this story but ultimately he is just sort of there to be the wide-eyed, drugged out friend who has a lot of money. It's unfortunate how limited the movie feels as it weighs down on how much I was willing to care for the characters.

Still, Kill Your Darlings has a lot of great things going on as well. Sure the story is unfocused but I like where it ends up and it made me reflect on some of the more dull moments in the film in a different way (the historical context of these characters is particularly interesting). Daniel Radcliffe gives a daring and strong performance as well and largely carries the movie. He starts off as quiet and timid but you see him discovering himself and his potential along the way. His representation of Allen Ginsberg is good although he doesn't necessarily fit the role physically and took a bit to get used to. I don't think any of the performances in this movie are bad (most are pretty good) but I think a few roles were miscast or wasted. Michael C Hall was the only one that didn't work for me (I watched Dexter recently and couldn't see anybody else other than that character... so maybe I'm crazy). I think Ben Foster was sort of wasted in the film as well. Luckily Radcliffe is good enough and is given so much screen time that a lot of the shortcomings are forgiven. I also really like the actor Dane DeHann in this movie even if his character is sort of one-note. Kill Your Darlings is carried largely by its lead performance and historical context but the stylish sepia-toned color palettes and sprinkling of surreal editing make it a visually pleasant film as well.

Overall I enjoyed myself watching Kill Your Darlings. I was riveted for the first act of the movie and thought it ended on a pleasantly reflective note. A good (and most certainly daring and fearless) performance from Daniel Radcliffe would have had a lot of people talking if this film had received more attention and for the most part the story is worth sticking around for. Unfortunately this movie stumbles pretty heavily in the middle and ends up getting very muddled as a result. Most supporting characters are lifeless which doesn't add a whole lot of anything and the dramatic relationships aren't developed in a fully realized way. Kill Your Darlings probably isn't going to be a movie a lot of people talk about after a while (probably won't even be considered the best portrayal of Allen Ginsberg) but it is worth a watch for people who are interested in American writers or this period of time in general. When this movie ended I did feel as if I understood how these chaotic minds worked just a little bit more, so that certainly says something.

6/10