Kill Your Darlings (***)

Daniel Radcliffe has already played a number of non-Harry Potter roles, and his role as beat poet Allen Ginsberg should further assure that he won’t be typecast. I quickly forgot about wizards as I watched him essay the role of the Jewish, Paterson, New Jersey-reared Ginsberg, off to Columbia University to discover his literary talents and his rebellious side. There, during the war years, he meets Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), an impetus for both the creative and destructive impulses. And, possibly, a murderer. The killing in question may be known to those who know about Ginsberg (and, if you don’t, I suspect you won’t be seeking out this film) and is revealed at the start of the film, though not the victim, or the reason.

The first half of the film is jazzy, like beat poetry. In one scene, Carr and Ginsberg seem to magically stop time in a club. Director John Krokidas employs a lot of montage scenes to suggest the magical haze that enveloped the two young men. In some scenes, William Burroughs (Ben Foster) appears, weird and druggy, years before his own infamous involvement in a killing. Later, they hang out with a new friend named Jack who’s at Columbia on a football scholarship. This of course turns out to be Jack Kerouac, who’s been at sea but not, as yet, on the road. They pull pranks. They invent a new artistic movement (called “new vision” the term “beat” yet to be coined) before producing any significant work. Young Allen learns of the older man (Michael C. Hall) who has been pursuing Carr, and discovers his own sexuality. Late in the film, Ginsberg calls Carr a “phony,” but that was my own impression immediately. So I found him an annoying, pretentious character—no fault of DeHaan—and was happy when the film reached the more heavily plotted stage in which there is betrayal, heartbreak, and the killing. Allen has to decide whether to help his friend, who’s been arrested.

This well-acted drama is for those curious about the birth of a movement, or for those who like to be reminded that the men (women being bit players in this movie) who create the future were once unformed young persons playing at being adults.

IMDb link

viewed 11/13/13 7:25 pm at Ritz 5 and posted 11/13/13 and revised 11/14/13