The proverb “kill your darlings” takes a literal and deadly turn in the film bearing the same name, which focuses on Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe, “Harry Potter”) and the beginnings of the Beat Generation.
The film starts with Ginsberg dealing with problems at home as his mother Naomi (Jennifer Jason Leigh, “Last Exit to Brooklyn”) suffers from a mental illness and resists institutionalization. However, Ginsberg is able to escape his family troubles and his detested home in Paterson, N.J. upon his acceptance to Columbia University in New York City.
Once Ginsberg reaches the Big Apple, his life changes dramatically after meeting Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan, “In Treatment”), an engaging upperclassman. Carr takes the young Ginsberg, a freshman who had never drank or smoked, on numerous adventures around New York. Carr introduces Ginsberg to William Burroughs (Ben Foster, “Contraband”) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston, “Boardwalk Empire”), two of the Beat Generation’s central personalities.
Although the film follows the Beat Generation from Ginsberg’s perspective, the film clearly depicts Carr as the central person who brought the writers together. DeHaan portrays Carr as a student who resists the constraints of society in life and in writing, and who is haunted by the endless sexual advances of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall, “Dexter”). Caar captivates Ginsberg and the audience instantaneously as he leaps onto the tables at Columbia’s library reciting lines from Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer” and even as he gradually falls apart due to his relationship with Kammerer.
Director and co-writer John Krokidas unabashedly depicts the Beat Generation’s formation as a meeting of brilliant but dark minds. The first scene depicts Carr standing in a body of water with a bloody Kammerer in his arms, followed by a screaming match between Ginsberg and Carr over a manuscript. Each member of the Beat scene faces his own personal demons that affect his work later in life, which Krokidas depicts.
What is lost in the film are the female characters and their impact on the main characters. Though Ginsberg is affected by his mother’s illness, her existence is used for convenience to give Ginsberg advice and to bring him closer to Carr than for giving additional insight into Ginsberg’s personality. Kerouac’s girlfriend Edie Parker (Elizabeth Olsen, “Liberal Arts”) and Carr’s mother Marian (Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer”) are overlooked characters who influenced Kerouac and Carr.
Radcliffe’s portrayal as Ginsberg solidifies the fact that he can extend beyond his work on “Harry Potter.” Radcliffe does not shy away from portraying Ginsberg as a man enamored by Carr.
With a skeptical yet reverent portrayal of four young men, “Kill Your Darlings” is a fascinating look into the lives of the Beat Generation.
