
Kill Your Darlings
3.4
(1.2K)
Drama
Romance
Thriller
2013
103 min
R
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
Starring:
Drama
Romance
Thriller
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"“Kill Your Darlings” receives so much praise for touching on the darker aspects of academia, but I believe this was done in an incredibly distasteful way. Firstly, it had no plot; it was just a bunch of foolish boys fresh out of high school running around and causing mischief, believing they’re suddenly these hipster revolutionaries because they got drunk and high together. I understand that this is kind of the point of the movie—to show the tragedy that substance abuse and overall youthful insolence can lead to—however, the movie exploited the depraved things these boys would do and romanticized their behavior, including the predatory relationship between Lucian and David.
This goes on for the majority of the movie, and only the last 30 minutes are actually about the murder and consequences the boys face. Even then, Lucien is not convicted of murder and Allen receives an encouraging letter from his professor despite his grotesque final project. You are almost left with the impression that the main characters were in the right all along, and they were simply too ahead of their time. The truth is that this was an incredibly messy situation where everyone was in the wrong. I wanted to love it so badly :("
"I adored this movie when it first premiered. Watched it again this week and couldn’t believe how much I dislike it now. The characters take themselves SO seriously, which might be okay if the movie itself poked fun at that—but it does not. The entire deal is unbearably pretentious. It is so cringeworthy how far all of these characters have their heads up their own a*ses. Dane DeHaan’s performance is particularly painful to watch. #killyourdarlings"