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Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings

Drama · Romance · Thriller · 2013

A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

Movie details

Kill Your Darlings

“A true story of obsession and murder.”

2013 Drama · Romance · Thriller 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Kill Your Darlings?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Krokidas

Written by

John Krokidas · Austin Bunn

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe

Allen Ginsberg

Dane DeHaan

Dane DeHaan

Lucien Carr

Michael C. Hall

Michael C. Hall

David Kammerer

Jack Huston

Jack Huston

Jack Kerouac

Ben Foster

Ben Foster

William Burroughs

David Cross

David Cross

Louis Ginsberg

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Naomi Ginsberg

Court is in session

Put Kill Your Darlings on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.