Kill Your Darlings

The Beats have had a resurgence of late; Hollywood presumably believes their vibrant defiance can strike a chord with this century’s more indolent disenfranchised youth. The hopeless Franco-fest Howl in 2011; last year, Walter Salles’ languid, wistful adaptation of On the Road; and now, Kill Your Darlings – an insipid retelling of several of the Beats’ formative years at Columbia University.

Seen through the eyes of the young Allen Ginsberg (Radcliffe), John Krokidas’ debut feature tells of Lucien Carr’s (DeHaan) importance to the Beat movement. The charismatic Carr has a hold over Ginsberg, which brings forth the burgeoning wordsmith’s creativity, and introduces him to Jack Kerouac (Huston) and William Burroughs (Foster).

DeHaan and Foster are excellent, but Radcliffe struggles in a more difficult role to pitch. Krokidas’ empty and trite aesthetic and awkward script of ‘Eureka!’ moments further hampers his attempt to recreate this fascinating, seductive slice of history. There’s a cinematic masterpiece to be born of these literary rabble-rousers, but as yet no one’s figured out quite how to make it. [Chris Fyvie]