Kill Your Darlings (2013)

The American film industry is desperate desperate desperate to tap into the prevailing fondness that postmodern society harbours for the Beat Generation of the 40s, 50s, 60s - which also happened to be an unprecedented period of American glory, creativity and technological innovation when they were at the spearhead of the civilised world, sure of their white man ideals, vastly removed from the broken social ills of the modern States. The Beats were a landmark group of American men who subverted and inverted literary traditions to forge new ways of writing that was original and visceral and angsty. The principal three figures of said movement are here portrayed in this decent rendering of that period - for the uninitiated that's Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Bill Burroughs.

Previous attempts at capturing their spirit in visual cinematic form have been mixed: the Kristen Stewart On The Road immediately springs to mind, although the David Cronenberg rendition of Burroughs' 'novel' Naked Lunch was, to my mind, curious and surreal enough to be considered good (that was a semi-biographical biopic, though heavily based on some of the abstract scenes from the book). So debut director and screenplay writer John Krokidas had gumption to take on the Beat legend and wrestle it into a workable filmic framework. His portrayal had two main approaches: tackling the Beats when they were still at the University of Columbia as the New Vision, before their ideals were yet fully defined; and making Lucien Carr, an early figure in the Beat story, a central character specifically his murder of David Kammerer. These are intelligent approaches and, to a degree, work nicely.

Problems arise when the four characters - Ginsberg, Carr, Kerouac, Burroughs - are split, and Krokidas doesn't seem necessarily sure which of the men to focus on; there are montage scenes which try to centralise all. He's prevaricating to include all Beats in one singular orgy of celebration. As the end notes configure when they detail the successful lives that these men would go on to leave, apart from Carr.

Obviously the main attraction to this picture is Daniel Radcliffe playing Ginsberg. Some, like myself, have queried Harry Potter's acting ability in the past but in Kill Your Darlings Radcliffe is actually very good; he interprets early Ginsberg as a young writer with ambition though nerved out by the new philandering narcotic surroudings that Lucien Carr introduces him to. At this stage in his life Ginsberg is caught between his adult artistic lifestyle and the sheltered middle-class upbringing he's had under his poet father and mentally maladied mother. Dane DeHaan is the social renegade and homme fatale, a suave young man who whips naive fellows into the whirlwind of his life and spits them out with sexual rejection. He leans his life on figures captivated by his persona, like David Kammerer and briefly Ginsberg, and relies on the safety net they provide to live wantonly. DeHaan is good at portraying these hidden haunted characters; he's an actor set for the big lights: he did well in The Place Beyond the Pines earlier this year and stars in the new Spiderman, next.

Kill Your Darlings is a decent addition to the canon of biographical Beat movies though it never strays into the pasture of excellence, even when it uses TV On The Radio for a night-time escapade. Oh yeah there's a lot of homosexuality but it never feels strained or forced but a natural progression. Krokidas never approaches these themes awkwardly or inorganically and they are executed with delightful emotion and brio.