‘Kill Your Darlings’ kills it!
Film Review of ‘ Kill Your Darlings’, Daniel Radcliffe & Dane DeHaan; WARNING, SLIGHT SPOILERS!
If there was a word for ‘it was really good but I’m not sure why and although it was a mix-up of genres and themes, it still kept me hooked’, then I would use it. However, there isn’t, so I’ll say this: it was ineffable. But I’ll try to explain…
So the film stars actors Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, two brilliant actors— in my opinion. When watching ‘The Woman in Black’, I couldn’t help dropping in the odd Harry Potter joke every now and then, but not during this film. Radcliffe is trying to disassociate himself from the Harry Potter tag and I must say, he’s definitely achieving that. His character in this film is a young poet — Allen Ginsberg from the beat generation, starting at a new, prestigious university in America — yes, Radcliffe employs an excellent American accent in this film. However, things take a turn for the ‘worst’ when he meets his co-star DeHaan, a mischievous second year student who conveys the term ‘free spirit’.
When I said, ‘takes a turn for the worst’, I should first explain what happens. The boys form a sort of friendship, where Radcliffe finds himself infatuated by DeHaan’s effortless charm and enchanting view of the world of literature. I found myself rooting for the two of them to get together, which is something I don’t easily do; perhaps this was because it wasn’t your run of the mill, cheesy romance story but instead the opposite. Through their time together the boys hangout with friends — actors Ben Foster and Michael C. Hall (who I was pleasantly surprised to see in the film) — and form a plan; to reinvent literary ideals.
In order to ‘reinvent’ literature, the group starts to smoke, drink and do drugs to stimulate their creative juices. This taking of narcotics, for ‘educational’ purposes, didn’t seem to bother me because of the time period that the film was set (1944). It’s like when you watch Mad Men; you don’t sit there angrily shaking your head at Don Draper for always having a cigarette hanging from his lips or a glass of brandy in his hand. When high on both their drugs and their lives in general, the group begin tearing pages from literary classics that have been regurgitated a myriad of times. They then do a run to the library where they replace the classics on display, with books that they believe are much more ground-breaking and influential to them as aspiring writers.
This is where things begin to change…Radcliffe, as I mentioned before, takes a turn in his career, making a name for himself outside of the Harry Potter franchise. He swears — which did get me saying, ‘oh my god, Harry swore!’ — but he also does much worse than that. If any of you have read J.K. Rowling’s new book ‘The Casual Vacancy’, then you’ll probably hold the collective opinion of many that Rowling went all out because she wasn’t restricted by children’s books limitations. Radcliffe has done a similar thing. He masturbates at his table when high on drugs; he is pleasured in the library by a loose library assistant; he makes out with co-star DeHaan in the park after first day-dreaming about him licking his finger; and lastly, he has homosexual sex with a man he meets in a bar. This isn’t the Harry Potter I knew!
But this was what made him stand out. He did a brilliant job playing the role that he did, whereas it could have dipped because of what it included. DeHaan was the same. As usual, he played an excellent character with brilliant acting skills that were worthy of the ‘Rising Star’ BAFTA award; which he was nominated for but sadly lost it to Will Poulter from ‘We’re the Millers’.
Anyway, with the circular narrative that director John Krokidas employs, we find ourselves realising why DeHaan is in jail. I shan’t reveal spoilers in this sense, but I think it was an important part of the narrative. Radcliffe found his life changing drastically when mixing with DeHaan and friends, and with this he releases his inner poet in a beautiful and inspiring way. DeHaan, however, suffers a downfall. The reason for this was because he was a beginner. He didn’t like to see things through to the end; he was easily scared. These characteristics were evoked by a troublesome past that came as a shock to me, but made a lot of sense. In the end, Radcliffe’s character has the most wholesome life after his time with that group. Both of the boys had difficult pasts, DeHaan’s being notably worse, but Radcliffe made something of it, and only bettered himself because of it.
All in all, I loved the film because of it’s inspiring narrative. Although there was a desolation of dreams and innocence in the film, there was also the great array of creativity. Simply from the way they spoke, I realised how inferior my intellect is. Their poetry is beautiful, both in its formation and its imagery; I felt what they wrote and that is a wonderful thing for me as a writer. So, if you like poetry or literary classics, or even if you simply enjoy learning about American history, then this film is a definite for you.
I’d rate it a 7 out of 10.
