Kill Your Darlings (2013)
In 1944, Allen Ginsberg was a nervous, straitlaced freshman at Columbia University. Jack Kerouac was a washed-up college running back who had lasted all of eight days in the U.S. Navy. William S. Burroughs was a medical school dropout, former door-to-door insect exterminator and budding drug addict, hanging on the fringes of the New York bohemian scene after following Lucien Carr and David Kammerer, friends from his native St. Louis, to Manhattan. But within months of their coming together to declare and pursue their ‘New Vision’ for art and literature, Kammerer was dead, stabbed in the heart by his former protégé and lover, Carr.
Shot from a script by director Krokidas and Austin Bunn, KILL YOUR DARLINGS features a compelling young ensemble that includes Daniel Radcliffe (the Harry Potter series) as the young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) as Jack Kerouac, Ben Foster (The Messenger) as William S. Burroughs, Dane DeHaan (In Treatment) as Lucien Carr and Michael C. Hall (Dexter) as David Kammerer. Rounded out by a supporting cast that includes Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Margot at the Wedding), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and David Cross (Arrested Development), KILL YOUR DARLINGS delivers a picture of the nascent Beat Generation that we‘ve never seen before, and tells the true story of the emotional crucible that shaped its voice and vision.
Director: John Krokidas
Writers: Austin Bunn, John Krokidas
Distributor: Sony Picture Classics