Kill Your Darlings

The Beat Generation is probably not my thing. Probably not at all. Every time I have encountered them, I was annoyed by their, in my opinion, senseless behavior, which seemed completely absurd to me. I have no idea what they were thinking about back then, but it wasn’t the war for sure. The booze and drug experiments caused by their intelligence that goes beyond a possibility of having a normal life, are shown really well here. The film is well made. But I wasn’t at all interested in their conversations. Apparently, according to this logic, a beatnik could be any local drunk, who is sipping his liquor and thinking about the sense of life, contemplating suicide every other day when the hangover hits him particularly bad, so that he leaves behind at least the memory. But the local drunk is at least sincere. These guys were only young and stupid and didn’t know what they wanted. (03/05/2015)

Maybe I was expecting something more from Kill Your Darlings, which is why I had quite conflicting feelings after watching it. The premise was certainly engaging and the performances were of a decent standard, yet the film left me cold for almost the entire running time and came across as a mediocre biographical drama, spiced up with crime. Alongside the beatnik storyline, I was intrigued by the portrayal of Allen's relationship with his mother. Better three stars! (05/07/2021)

It's definitely a film that introduces you to interesting events. The young actors here demonstrate they don't want to be boxed in, although with his face, DeHaan just can't play a clumsy lover with a heartfelt approach. Harry Potter has grown up a bit, but his face is still childish. But he did well here. It's a shame that Beatnik films, or films about Beatniks, are mostly good rather than groundbreaking. This is another such case. It’s of high quality, but not exceptional. (05/05/2014)