Kill Your Darlings

Columbia University, 1944. A young Allen Ginsberg starts school and meets Lucien Carr. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac are around too. What circles the group is as much Carr's relationship with David Kammerer, who has been fixated on him for years, as it is literature, and the story ends in a killing. It is John Krokidas's first feature, written with Austin Bunn. Daniel Radcliffe plays Ginsberg and Dane DeHaan plays Carr, with Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston and Ben Foster in the cast. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and opened in limited release that October. On a 5.6 million dollar budget it grossed 1.8 million worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 77 percent, with critics praising the chemistry between Radcliffe and DeHaan while some found it hemmed in despite its stylistic ambition. The historical accuracy is contested. Bob Rosenthal, Ginsberg's longtime associate, called it a superb evocation but said it contained a number of inaccuracies, particularly about the relationship between Carr and Kammerer. It won the Venice Days International Award and the Dorian Award for Unsung Film of the Year. Who it is for: viewers curious about the Beat Generation and anyone who wants to see Radcliffe after Potter. Who it is not for: anyone wanting documentary accuracy. It tells a real killing and rearranges much of what happened.