Kill Your Darlings

Back in the early college days of poet Allen Ginsberg, when he was just getting to know the likes of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a mysterious murder took place. Daniel Radcliffe plays Ginsberg, infatuated with a fellow student named Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) who killed a former mentor and possible stalker (Michael C. Hall) and involved some of his fellow students in the killing’s aftermath. Radcliffe and DeHaan are pretty good here, but the film’s best performance belongs to Ben Foster as Burroughs. He nails the former drug guru’s mannerisms. The film also stars Jack Huston as Jack Kerouac, and David Cross as Alan’s father, Louis (Cross played an older Ginsberg in I’m Not There). While the movie has a few lapses in judgment, it’s interesting to see somebody actually telling this little known story.