Thursday, January 24 2013, 12:30 PM MST
Sundance Review: Kill Your Darlings
4 out of 5 Stars
Director: John Krokidas
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan and Ben Foster
Category: U.S. Dramatic
Recommended to: Bohemians, poets, outsiders and budding literary revolutionists.
In 1944 Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) went to Columbia University and quickly fell under the spell of the passionate and handsome Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). Driven by Carrs desire to throw out convention in all forms Ginsberg along with newfound friends William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac prepare to set the literary world on fire. With revolution at their fingertips the group unravels when Carr murders his former lover and lands himself, Burroughs and Kerouac in jail.
Literary movements rarely happen on purpose and few in recent history have had the impact that the Beat Generation has had. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs are revered and reviled and Carr, the man who fanned the flames, is little more than a footnote. Kill Your Darlings is a bitter pill. Its brilliantly done, but much like the Beat movement itself, it is weighed down by a doomed sense of self-destruction. It is seedy, vulgar and free and yet bound, handcuffed and shackled by the melancholy heartache of unquenched desire. It is the death that came before the rebirth.
-Ryan Michael Painter
(Copyright 2013 Sinclair Broadcasting Group.)
Director: John Krokidas
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan and Ben Foster
Category: U.S. Dramatic
Recommended to: Bohemians, poets, outsiders and budding literary revolutionists.
In 1944 Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) went to Columbia University and quickly fell under the spell of the passionate and handsome Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). Driven by Carrs desire to throw out convention in all forms Ginsberg along with newfound friends William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac prepare to set the literary world on fire. With revolution at their fingertips the group unravels when Carr murders his former lover and lands himself, Burroughs and Kerouac in jail.
Literary movements rarely happen on purpose and few in recent history have had the impact that the Beat Generation has had. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs are revered and reviled and Carr, the man who fanned the flames, is little more than a footnote. Kill Your Darlings is a bitter pill. Its brilliantly done, but much like the Beat movement itself, it is weighed down by a doomed sense of self-destruction. It is seedy, vulgar and free and yet bound, handcuffed and shackled by the melancholy heartache of unquenched desire. It is the death that came before the rebirth.
-Ryan Michael Painter
(Copyright 2013 Sinclair Broadcasting Group.)
