Kill Your Darlings

I wanted to like this film. I really did. Having heard so much about it and reading critics positive reviews, I was almost sure that this movie is going to be great. And of course, what happens; After having sat through 4 sessions and finally finishing the film, I was glad that it ended. Another example for me on how expectations really burst your bubble. I think I need to rethink these true autobiographical kind of stories because there is so much there that the makers pack in them, and if you do not have the context of who's who before watching the film, you will be completely lost like me.

The film chronicles early life of the famous poet Allen Ginsberg. He gets a seat in Columbia University and soon meets Lucien , a rowdy, anti-establishment student in the college. Ginsberg discovers that Lucien's papers are all written by David, who is older to him and also probably an ex-lover. David loves Lucien and but the latter is just using him. Rebellious writer William and a sailor Jack also hangs out with the group. Ginsberg takes part in various extreme escapades with this extraordinary group of people. Allen has crush on Lucien and he knows that. So Lucien tells David that he is done with him and recruits Allen to write his term papers. When Allen finds out Lu probably doesn't love him as much he does, he is heartbroken. A confrontation between Lu and David, ends up David being dead by stabbing and drowning. Lucien is arrested and he requests Allen to write his deposition for him. Initially reluctant to help, Ginsberg goes about riding about the truth of what happened and what's the history behind David and Lucien's relationship and writes a piece entitled "The Night In Question". After reading it, Lu begs Allen to not release it because it can ruin him. The friendship sours and Ginsberg gets expelled from college but gets a encouraging note form his professor to pursue his writing.

The film boasts of excellent performances by everyone specially by Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg and Dane DeHaan as Lucien. As I mentioned above, my problem is with the first half of the film. You see so many characters being introduced, it becomes a little hard to keep a track of who's who and what their relationship with each other is. And this is when it help to have some sort of prior background information. The film is an intellectual moral maze and not exactly an entertainer. The movie although sometimes confident, is an obsessive and complicated re-telling of enigmatic characters placed in a deceitful and over-dramatized tragedy of murder. The movie feels drowned in the water with average narrative clichés weighing it down despite some really good performances. Also, it doesn’t deal very sensitively with the issues sexuality presented for these period characters. Maybe it wasn't important but then why show the scene where Ginsberg loses his virginity.

Kill Your Darlings isn’t exactly bad, it’s just a bit boring and misguided, and it failed to keep my attention at it despite I trying my best. (5/10)