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| Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg |
The offbeat, copacetic "Kill Your Darlings" is part bio and part real-life murder tale that's weird enough to make you think it wasn't true. "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe stars as Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg set during the famed poet's early years at Columbia University, and centering on a murder investigation involving Ginsberg, his handsome classmate Lucien Carr (Dane De Haan), and fellow Beat authors and friends William Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston). Directed and co-written by John Krokidas in his feature film debut, it's an auspicious, very stylish start for Krokidas, as "Kill Your Darlings" is a low-key but enticing tale made better by its attractive leads, especially from Radcliffe and De Haan ("The Place Beyond the Pines"). Radcliffe continues to make intriguing post-"Harry Potter" film choices, and he makes for an affecting, young Ginsberg, who was clearly infatuated with Carr, a fellow student and early Beat Generation pioneer. Heavily stylized and likely enhancing the relationship the men had, "Kill Your Darlings" is offbeat, a little weird but rarely dull. De Haan continues to emerge as a sturdy character actor, and his portrait of the manipulative Carr, who knew his way with vocabulary and getting what he wanted, is memorably sublime. Though the dark subject matter isn't for everyone, the well-acted, affecting and often entertaining "Kill Your Darlings" is worth a look.
Wes's Grade: B
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