"Kill your darlings" is a phrase often repeated to aspiring writers. It has been attributed to a variety of sources, including Anton Chekhov, Oscar Wilde and William Faulkner. In essence, this phrase encourages the aspiring writer to be merciless about getting rid of self-indulgent passages for the greater good of his or her work. "Kill Your Darlings" is a film about what happens when that advice is taken too literally.
The idea that beginnings are the most exciting parts of life is a thought repeated often throughout this film -- and the truthfulness of it is on evidence everywhere. "Kill Your Darlings" is the feature film debut of writer/director John Krokidas. It contains a knockout performance from a promising young actor at the start of his career and it tells the story of the uncertain first steps of the Beat Generation, evolving in 1940s New York City. All of these beginnings combine to craft one of the most uniquely thrilling films to make its way into theaters this season.
But if beginnings are exciting, they're also messy. Krokidas is a filmmaker as-yet uncentered in his craft, and so was the movement he's chronicling here. As such, his approach to the story is appropriately bold and unfettered from tradition. The movie tells the story of Allen Ginsberg's early days at Columbia University, where he meets and becomes friends with the likes of other future literary geniuses like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. But it's his relationship with the volatile Lucien Carr that's the heart of "Kill Your Darlings", and it's a relationship that's as volatile and unstable as a powder keg...one you know will erupt before the movie ends. By the time the credits roll, Lucien will have murdered his lover/mentor/predator David Kammerer, an event that shaped Ginsberg's young life. This is not a spoiler: apart from this being a true story, the murder is foreshadowed in the film's opening moments. It's the resulting sense that events are spiraling inevitably towards chaos that gives the film its dangerous rhythm. Employing frenetic pacing, off-kilter camera angles, low lighting and jazzy music, Krokidas expertly evokes the sense of instability that is inherent in new beginnings. The movie (quite purposefully) never finds its footing, so neither will the audience. There's a sense that anything could happen at any moment, which is rare in films based on true stories.
Enter into this already-unstable world the ticking time bomb that is Lucien Carr. As portrayed by Dane DeHaan, Lucien has a smoldering sensuality that is impossible to resist. He has mastered the art of appearing effortlessly cool, only to mask the turbulence inside his soul. Lucien wants so badly to be an enigma, because his story of forbidden love is depressingly pedestrian. So he cloaks himself in drugs and pranks and revolutionary words, content to act the muse while those around him create the art he can't. DeHaan burst into the public eye with his tortured performance in the sci-fi hit "Chronicle". He has since delivered equally compelling performances in films such as "Lawless" and "The Place Beyond The Pines". But it's "Kill Your Darlings" that firmly cements his status as an actor to watch out for. As Lucien, with his carelessly-swept bangs, his youthful intensity and his casual capriciousness, he calls to mind young River Phoenix and his promising (though tragically short) career. DeHaan may well grow to be one of the most exciting actors of his generation. Daniel Radcliffe and his famous name get top billing here, but make no mistake: this is DeHaan's film through and through.
Though overshadowed by the unpredictable Lucien, it must be said that Radcliffe's nebbishy Allen is also terrific. With this role, Radcliffe continues his quest to distance himself from his Harry Potter days, and this may be his biggest success thus far. His fixation on Lucien is both understandable and tragic, and his transformation from observing sidekick to the passionate leader of a movement is believable and cathartic. Jack Huston ("Boardwalk Empire") is confident and assured as Jack Kerouac (who would go on to pen "On The Road"). Ben Foster ("3:10 To Yuma") is hysterical as the stoic drug connoisseur William S. Burroughs (the author of "Junkie" and "Naked Lunch"). Michael C. Hall makes his first new appearance since the end of "Dexter" as the pitiably obsessive Kammerer and Jennifer Jason Leigh is heartbreaking in a small supporting role as Allen's disturbed mother.
"Kill Your Darlings" is the kind of biopic that, like Spielberg's "Lincoln", focuses on one formative period in a historical figure's life as a way of elucidating that person's character. No viewer will walk away from the film feeling like an expert in the life story of Allen Ginsberg. But in evoking the exciting, dangerous, messy, violent beginnings of his revolutionary career, audiences will walk away with the sense that they have experienced Ginsberg's essence distilled into cinematic form. And, even more memorably, that they have witnessed the transformation of a young actor from a promising amateur into a thrilling talent.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxGgkEHmHHg[/youtube]
