The film would be enjoyed by fans of the Beat Generation's poets and homosexuals who take their birth rights seriously, or both. I am a homosexual and I did enjoy this one tremendously. Not in so many films that homosexuality serves only as an undertone, despite some visualized images of homosexual lovemaking. Absolute love of freedom becomes the overriding theme of this bunch of homosexual artists. I think this film will get all of us closer to a natural treatment of the third sex. Homosexuals would be equaled to heterosexuals when their "issue" ceases to be an issue for the public at large. The film is not trying to tell the whole story of these artists. Just a very thin slice was chosen to be told, and what a slice it was. My country, Thailand, is still stuck with the 18th Century superhuman theory of politics. All moral codes are determined by how much you love and glorify the king. Nothing else really matters. Even a murder is construed by law as being better than libeling the king, his family members, and his men. So I understand how it feels to be so free, and be met with ultra-conservatism at times. Madness can come as a result of being free, but the lack of it would drive you insane. Quite a different of psychological episodes. I encourage you to watch this film and do more research about these characters. You will end up knowing a lot more about yourself.

"Another lover hits the universe. The circle is broken. But with death comes rebirth. And like all lovers and sad people, I am a poet."

I knew nothing about Kill Your Darlings going into this movie (which means I basically don't know anything about modern American literature because apparently these guys were famous poets that influenced their generation during the 50's with their literary work). Known today as the Beat generation, they basically rejected the moral standards imposed at the time and innovated in style while experimenting with drugs and sex. Many films based on their work have been adapted for for the big screen (Howl, On the Road, and Naked Lunch), but I haven't seen them, so I actually went into this film without knowing anything about these writers. The film serves as an introduction as to how these writers came together and influenced one another during their teenage years, and it is told from Allen Ginsberg's point of view. This biographical drama/thriller may not be entirely factual, but it is still a fascinating story, and once the film ended it made me want to know about who these people were. The film's main attraction is the excellent chemistry between Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan who give excellent performances (and after a while you actually forget Radcliffe is Harry Potter). The supporting cast is also strong, including Michael C. Hall, Ben Foster, and Jack Huston. I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Olsen, but in this film her character wasn't given much to work with, but it makes sense considering the Beat generation is a male dominated movement. It ended up influencing the hippie movement in the 60's and popular rock bands like The Beatles. This film only focuses on the early stages of their lives, but it shows how these artists came to know each other and how Lucien Carr was the most influential figure in their formation.

The screenplay was co-written by director John Krokidas and Austin Bunn focusing on the early stages of Alan Ginsberg's (Daniel Radcliffe) life as he began studying at Columbia University which shaped his philosophical views on life. The turning point in his life was when he met his classmate, Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) who taught him to question the orthodox methods of the school and introduced him to other future icons of the Beat generation: William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster), and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston). Together they would hang out in night clubs exploring new literary ideas and basically rediscovering themselves. They were against moral boundaries and explored with drugs and sex. Alan and some of the others also dealt with their homosexuality, while some tried to hide it. Lu also introduced Alan to one of his mentors, David Krammerer (Michal C. Hall), who was obsessed with Lu and ultimately led to a tragic event.

The film succeeds mostly because of the great performances from the young cast and because it is actually an intriguing story. John Krokidas isn't a director I was familiar with, but he does a decent job with this film. The film does have a believable 40's style and it stays true to the period. It is really well paced as well and it begins to get more interesting once the crime takes place. Unfortunately the film does lack some structure and at times I felt like it was wandering off. The scenes with Allen's mother never were explored much, but we understand how it affected his life and his relationship with his father. The characters are sometimes a bit too clever and don't feel real at times. Still, I was engaged with this film thanks to the material which is very interesting and I enjoyed the performances very much. The film is ambiguous at times, but that is what will leave you thinking and wanting to learn more about these characters at the end. It is all over the place at times, but I was drawn in to the story and for a biopic it gets the job done.

It's a story of the poet Allen Ginsberg's youth, from a nice Jewish kid in Patterson, New Jersey, to a dropout from Columbia University in 1944. This milieu -- and the neighborhood called North Beach in San Francisco -- produced the Beat Generation or Beatniks. Many of them, the ones we meet in this film, went on to considerable but ephemeral fame -- Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Ginsberg himself, probably best noted for his poem "Howl." The title, "Kill Your Darlings," is from William Faulkner who, taken either by a fit of absurdity or maybe drunkenness, advised writers to delete those passages in their manuscripts that they liked best. If you like something, you wind up obsessed and your judgment fails you.

I suppose that's the central theme of the film. Ginsberg falls for Lucien Carr and Carr rejects the importunings of his former lover, David Kammerer, and finally brutally murders Kammerer. I can understand Kammerer's obsession with Carr. Not that I understand eros between two men but I do understand obsession. It took me years to discover which major ocean port was in the middle of Czechoslovia.

Daniel Radcliffe is Ginsberg and although he has the name of one of the seven sisters he looks like Ginsberg probably looked -- puny with horn-rimmed glasses. I don't know what Lucien Carr looked like but I can believe he was something like Dane DeHaan -- beautiful and effete. Michael C. Hall is Kammerer, who begins as a commanding figure and winds up a shivering supplicant. All the performances are adequate but Hall's may be the best of the lot. Kerouac is a marginal figure, a football hero and athlete who can also read and write. William Burroughs, Ben Foster here, should do a one-man show as a young Harry Truman.

The atmosphere is rich, but the story doesn't quite come together, nor did I care much about who loved who. I don't quite know what happened towards the end. The director and editor turned the murder into the climax, understandably. But they rather spoiled it by giving us broad hints in flashbacks before what is supposed to be the full reveal. The shock they were presumably aiming at is diluted by the sometimes misleading adumbrations and by the generally confused sequence of events leading up to it. Besides, David Kammerer, as portrayed, was a ridiculous pain in the ass. And the title doesn't fit. Carr kills Kammerer, true, but Kammerer was no longer Carr's "darling". Just the other way round.

And I'm guessing at the constant early references to a revolution in literature -- about how things get more and more separated from their center and need to be pulled back by revolutionaries -- is borrowed from Yeats' "The Second Coming", the business about the widening gyre, except that everything these guys do, like destroying the classics in the Columbia library and substituting pornography, isn't "pulling back" at all. They're not calling the falcon back. They're setting him loose. Literary chaos is slouching towards Bethlehem.

Not that the stuff they produced can be easily dismissed. Ginsberg's "Howl", Kerouac's "On the Road," and Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" are unforgettable. They read poetry in front of jazz combos in North Beach and the Village. Is one permitted to ask about the aspirations of today's generation of college youths? Anyway, Ginsberg held his act together for the rest of his life, finally finding a steady lover. Kerouac became a smelly drunk, and Burroughs a junkie. But while it lasted -- what gusto!