Even if you’re familiar with the writings of the Beats, it’s a good bet that John Krokidas’ debut feature, Kill Your Darlings, will still surprise you. That’s because, while William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac wrote about their “origin story” in a joint novel, “And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks,” the book was held from publication for over six decades. The new film, which hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles today, takes audiences back to 1944 where the dawn of a literary movement became the scene of gruesome murder.
Kill Your Darlings approaches the scene from the point of view of a young Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), as he begins college at Columbia University. There, he meets Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), a young man whose deep love of and desire for artistic expression is matched by a nihilistic, self-destructive contempt for authority. It’s through that same spirit that Carr introduces Ginsberg to Kerouac (Jack Huston) and Burroughs (Ben Foster) and sets in motion events that will change the world. Sadly, it soon becomes what threatens to tear the group apart when it leads to Carr taking the life of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall).
ComingSoon.net sat down with Radcliffe, DeHaan and Hall to discuss bringing the “lost” Beat story to life, the casting of David Cross as Allen’s father, Lois Ginsberg (after he played the “Howl” author himself in Todd Hayne’s I’m Not There ) and tapping into the pure sense of poetry embraced by the Beats.
Check out the interviews in the player below and check back soon for our interview with writer-director John Krokidas.
