Wonderful Movie

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Well, how ironic that a film based on the giants of the Beat Generation, the literary revolution that cleaved the 20th Century in half, would collapse under the weight of a badly written, two dimensional, screenplay. There is no shortage of compelling story lines involving the writers who led this revolution; Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, or William S. Burroughs (murdered his wife playing William Tell with a bow and arrow and got a way with it, oops).The storyline they chose was the murder committed by Lucien Carr where he stabbed and drown a former lover, David Kammerer. There should be plenty to work with here. But rather than focusing the 90 minutes of screen time on developing anything meaningful about the literary movement, the murder, the murderer, or the victim, we're instead shown snapshots of those things, plus Allen's mentally disturbed mother, Lucien's overly involved mother, a prank they commit at the library on the Columbia University campus, Jack Kerouac's complicated personal life, university stuff, other stuff, and then more stuff. The context in which this murder occurs, and the literary revolution, is everywhere, and nowhere. And in the end you could care less about any of them or what they did.I recall hearing a lot about this film while it was in production. The hype was intense because of the real life characters, what they did, and who was playing them. I do not recall the film ever being released. Perhaps it was. But it just seemed to disappear quietly and was forgotten. I saw something about it years later somewhere and thought to myself, "Oh yeah, that. Wonder what happened to that film." After purchasing the DVD and watching it, it is easy to see why it was smothered in its crib and buried in the backyard. Which is a shame because the story is there, some of the acting is quite good, but none of that can, or ever will, overcome bad writing. Which was kind of the point of the Beat Generation to begin with. If you can see it for free and have nothing better to do with 90 minutes of your life it won't kill you to watch it. It won't give you any enjoyment either.

I can't begin to answer this question. Kill Your Darlings is somewhat a coming-of-age film about Alan, a wannabe poet, entering the world of university and encountering a dark-humoured, romantic boy-with-a-past, Lucien. This part is pretty predictable, and what comes immediately after is also somewhat to the book. However, KYD will most likely touch you in some deep place if, like me, you enjoy black comedy, rebellion, and wannabe revolutionaries. There is everything to enjoy about this movie, and, what's more, it's based on a true story, so the story doesn't end once the credits start rolling. Don't you just love a film where you can do a little research? I do! Cinematography is wonderful, dialogue is beautiful, and Dane DeHaan is fantastic as always. I was close to giving it ten stars, but since I've literally just finished watching it, I thought I'd let my starry-eyed-ness die down a little before reaching a concrete verdict. Eight stars it is.

I was iffy on watching this since I am not into poetry and it seem like a film deal with era I don't really connect with, But I am wrong when Allen ( Daniel Radcliffe) smile at Lac (Dane) performance of a obscure poem along gesture in library during Allen's freshman tour to his new school.Fun and poem are flattering witty and beautiful. They do kind a lot of reciting of poems and it add more feels to the scene. Chemistry between Allen and Lac was amazing and intensifying trilling. They were very comfort with being sexual situations. It not vulgar like HBO sex scene (loud,thrusting) but nude with implication of bonding. later, it got so dark and angst but I think it end on good note on Allen regarding his career path.

i just read burroughs' and kerouac's novel "and the hippos where boiled in their tanks" and i was so excited to see, that there was a movie based on the same story...let's be brief: the book was so much fun, which the movie was not, it was like a completely different story, over-dramatic and above all so much Hollywood-style, i.e. not even depicting the fun in drugs and useless drinking for instance (which was essential in the beat generations and so much fun in the novel), that's highly insulting for ginsberg, kerouac and burroughs....so much more fun reading the novel, forget about this movie! (except for the amazing cast: radcliffe, de haan (reminds me of young di caprio) and houston)