A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
As with many films that attempt to trace the emergence of a cultural movement, the formation of the Beat Generation is hung upon a few key moments of inspiration in a way that feels simplistic. While Krokidas can’t avoid that inevitability, his use of jazz-infused cutting perfectly captures a sense of restless creativity.
The cast are so good, from Radcliffe to Dane DeHaan, that you should overlook that it’s directed like a Dead Poets Society fever dream.
There’s a cinematic masterpiece to be born of these literary rabble-rousers, but as yet no one’s figured out quite how to make it.
A vibrant, insightful film about writers and writing, featuring Daniel Radcliffe’s best post-Potter performance.
Too light for the hardcore Beat set, to muddled for newbies.
This is a memorable coming-of-age tale for both Ginsberg and Radcliffe (you never saw Harry Potter having acrobatic gay sex). It’s much better than other attempts to dramatise the lives of the Beat generation like the recent On The Road.
Daniel Radcliffe shines as Allen Ginsberg in a film that takes a deeper look at the birth of the beat generation.
Sex, drugs, murder, radical verse and Radcliffe make persuasive bedfellows in Krokidas’ live-wire lit-pic. It gets busy, but fizzy direction and Rad’s rigour help to keep its pulse alive.
The energy of the performances and Krokidas’ flashy directorial style paper over the cracks in the plotting.
Ultimately, it's oddly conservative fare; well played, handsomely mounted, but as inert as the books that its protagonists blithely hurl from the shelves.
It’s a story tinged with tragedy and tenderness – and, in keeping with its title, it cuts through some of the overwrought claptrap that has been associated with this particular movement.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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