Kill Your Darlings
Directed by John Krokidas
- drama
- romance
- thriller
The story
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
What it’s like
Smoky, saturated interiors shot in warm lamplight, with dim bars, cramped dorm rooms and bedsit clutter rendered in amber and brown, then cut against the cooler grey of a 1944 Manhattan campus and the washed-out gloom of the city streets. Camera moves are restless but controlled: handheld close-ups during arguments, slow pushes into faces during confessions, and dreamlike flashes of typed letters, postcards and record-player needles that give the story a feverish, literary texture. The score leans on jazz-tinged piano and quiet strings, with sudden silences at moments of violence. Tone is moody and intense, a blend of romance, unease and creeping obsession, and the rhythm moves in bursts, lingering over conversations in cluttered rooms before tightening into tense, fast-cut scenes. There is a murder at the center and it is shown directly but briefly, with sharp, unsettling violence rather than gore. Expect drinking, sexual content between men, and themes of mental illness and political menace, including a fascist undercurrent. The emotional arc follows young artists struggling to find themselves and each other, with jealousy and loyalty tangling into something painful. Best for viewers who enjoy brooding, literary period dramas and do not want anything gentle.
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