MOVI ES
BY MO LLY TEMP LETO N
HOWLIN’
DARLINGS
A twisting early portrait of Beat
writers before the Beat Generation
KILL YOUR DARLINGS: Directed by John Krokidas. Written by Krokidas
and Austin Bunn; story by Bunn. Cinematography, Reed Morano. Editing, Brian A.
Kates. Music, Nico Muhly. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C.
Hall, Jack Huston, Ben Foster, David Cross, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Elizabeth
Olsen. Sony Pictures Classics, 2013. R. 104 minutes. 00011
often likably so, in Ginsberg’s case). It’s clear that the
climax of this story affected everyone involved, but that’s
later; this is the early days, the “before” part of a before-
and-after. What Krokidas and Bunn seem more interested
in is the tangled web of affection and wariness that existed
between these men in a time that was, to put it mildly,
much less open to homosexuality. Michael C. Hall is all
wide-eyed quiet desperation, but Radcliffe makes palpable
Ginsberg’s enlivening; his drug-addled writing fits go
hand in hand with his willingness to become more
vulnerable, to go on midnight library raids, to — eventually
— explore his sexuality. He never quite breaks free
completely, but you can see it coming. It’s DeHaan,
though, that makes this film. His Carr is constantly on
edge, constantly in denial, pushing at everyone around him
to create a world, a movement, in which he might finally
be comfortable. He wants life to be nothing but beginnings
but can’t figure out how to bring anything to a peaceful
end. Kill Your Darlings paints a sepia-toned, beautifully
detailed picture of a writer becoming himself — but the
story belongs as much to Carr, the one whose name we
might’ve forgotten. ■
doing a delicious William Burroughs) in a bathtub, and
gets a glimpse of the complicated relationship between
Carr and David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall), a former
professor now apparently making a habit of hosting
college parties for would-be intellectuals.
Krokidas and his co-writer, Austin Bunn, make the wise
choice to shape Kill Your Darlings into one of the circles
its characters are always going on about; it starts near the
end of the tale, so there are no surprises when Carr finally
snaps, but it takes its time making its way all the way
around. Ginsberg loves Whitman; Carr wants to start a
movement but never writes a word; Jack Kerouac (played
loathsomely by Jack Huston), whom Lucien praises as a
“real writer,” joins their little gaggle, leaving his girlfriend,
Edie, at home (Elizabeth Olsen does as much as anyone
could with Edie, but this film is definitely a boys’ club).
Tensions simmer between all of them, heightened by the
volatile, vulnerable, self-loathing Carr.
You might be tempted to watch Kill Your Darlings in
search of insight into the Beats, but I’m not sure that’s
what you’ll find here. These are boys on the road to being
great men, but they’re still sophomoric and immature (and
I
n Kill Your Darlings, Daniel Radcliffe, with a mop of
tousled hair half swallowing his face, plays the young
Allen Ginsberg, when the now-renowned poet was
but an innocent Columbia freshman. You can stop
thinking of Radcliffe as Harry Potter now; since that
series ended, he’s made a career of heading off in the
opposite direction, and his role in John Krokidas’ directorial
debut might be the final step on the road to being taken
seriously.
On what seems like his first day of college, the studious
Ginsberg sees a charismatic young man leap atop a library
table and begin reciting the restricted words of Henry
Miller. Everyone is utterly shocked, of course, because it’s
1944 and repression is all the rage — but Ginsberg can’t
keep a small, delighted smile from his face. The boy, it
turns out, lives just down the hall.
Worldly and more than a little volatile, Lucien Carr
(Dane DeHaan, with a spark of early DiCaprio about him)
takes Ginsberg under his wing, leading him to the village,
where he meets “Willie” (the underappreciated Ben Foster,
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