Kill Your Darlings
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 16, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 15, 2013
Mr. Krokidas deftly shows how the ambition to write is entangled with other impulses. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 31, 2013
In this tale of longing, loss and regret, it isn’t always possible to know who’s deluding oneself, or someone else. But then, it isn’t always possible to know that in real life either. Read full review
87
Film.comJordan HoffmanSep 6, 2013
It transcends the usual biopic limitations to tell a specific story about some well-known people with larger, universal implications. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyDec 9, 2013
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. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon WiseDec 2, 2013
A vibrant, insightful film about writers and writing, featuring Daniel Radcliffe’s best post-Potter performance. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloOct 18, 2013
They flail and they thrash, and Krokidas' film is just like them — as jazz-inflected and freewheeling as the Beat poetry these guys were about to unleash on the world. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 17, 2013
Brash, bristling, highly watchable film. Read full review
80
The GuardianDamon WiseSep 6, 2013
Though it begins as a murder-mystery, Kill Your Darlings may be best described as an intellectual moral maze, a story perfectly of its time and yet one that still resonates today. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 20, 2013
The film’s love for its subjects is mirrored in their passionate frenzy for words, and language – spoken, written, body – in general. Above all, and what sets it apart from other cinematic takes on the Beatified, is how much fun it is. It may end in tears, but then, don’t all great love stories? Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 21, 2013
At the center of the film lies a moral question, not a literary one: Should Ginsberg abandon the potentially visionary Carr when he turns out to be a liar, an exploiter and an emotional traitor? Should he, in fact, “kill his darling” when Carr commits a heinous act and asks Ginsberg to lie for him? Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleNov 14, 2013
Kill Your Darlings is more coming-of-age story than murder mystery, but its characters are so well drawn and complex the emotional weight carries a suspense all its own. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 8, 2013
Kill Your Darlings is a tale of inspiration, then, but also a tale of jealousy, obsession, homophobia, and homicide. It's a whirlwind. Even if it doesn't all hang together, it's worth the ride. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 31, 2013
That Ginsberg is played by Daniel Radcliffe might come as a shock, but the shock wears off as the movie rolls on and you realize you’re in very good hands. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 17, 2013
Far more coherent than last year's aimless "On the Road" and more sharply focused than 2010's "Howl," it centers on a youthful Ginsberg finding his nascent artistic voice. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnOct 17, 2013
It's almost enough to make you wish that Kokidas and co-writer Austin Bunn had fictionalized the story. But then again, a beardless Ginsberg isn't really Ginsberg at all, which gives Radcliffe all the room to play around with the character that he needs. It might be best spell yet. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickOct 17, 2013
It’s much more lively than “On the Road,” last year’s snoozy adaptation of the Kerouac novel that presented fictionalized versions of some of the same characters. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 17, 2013
Sex, lies, betrayal and murder set among the gods of the Beat Generation. That's Kill Your Darlings, a dark beauty of a film that gets inside your head and stays there. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 8, 2013
You wouldn’t want Kill Your Darlings to be the only information you ever get about the Beats. But it’s a decent introduction for the uninitiated, and interesting enough to those who know the story. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 6, 2013
There’s a limber, freewheeling aspect to the storytelling that echoes the rule-breaking literary form of the Beat writers. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangSep 6, 2013
Directed with an assured sense of style that pushes against the narrow confines of its admittedly fascinating story, John Krokidas’ first feature feels adventurous yet somewhat hemmed-in. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 16, 2013
The saving grace of Kill Your Darlings is its sordid romantic angle, a narrative thread that pulls the film away from wink-wink allusions and into more serious emotional territory. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 17, 2013
As for Ginsberg himself: Should we be more impressed that Radcliffe so confidently portrays an actual icon, or that he banishes all memories of the fictional one he’s portrayed before? Both accomplishments suggest that he’s got real talent, and a future that’s already taking him well past Harry Potter. Read full review
60
The DissolveSam AdamsOct 16, 2013
Unfortunately, Kill Your Darlings doesn’t know what to do with Radcliffe and DeHaan, good as they are; there’s little sense of how they fit into a larger framework, or what bearing, if any, it might have on its more famous subjects’ later output. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 6, 2013
Unlike Walter Salles’s recent adaptation of On The Road, which embraced the Beat philosophy with a wide and credulous grin, Kill Your Darlings is inquisitive about the movement’s worth, and the genius of its characters is never assumed. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 25, 2013
Director and co-writer John Krokidas doesn’t have a very fluent gift for period re-creation – everything seems stagy – and most of the actors, playing divas of various stripes, overact. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 6, 2013
Well shot and well made, Kill Your Darlings is a very competently constructed effort on a whole, but there’s an emptiness and familiarity at its core that it cannot transcend. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 31, 2013
Despite its general intelligence and worthy performances, Kill Your Darlings makes it difficult to see how the Beats ever caught on. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 17, 2013
Kill Your Darlings wants to be a young man’s movie, but it’s all “cinema du papa,” as the French New Wave used to call it. The philosophical disconnect is downright cosmic. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedOct 16, 2013
Something is missing here, like a clear perspective. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 16, 2013
Far too conventional underneath all the trappings, you wish it would howl. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineBill WeberSep 11, 2013
An overmatched star and a scarcity of eccentricity sink this hip-lit origin story from director John Krokidas. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 22, 2013
Along the way, Krokidas' story becomes a touch schizophrenic, at times a coming-of-age story, a love story, a crime drama and a literary drama. It's hard to say which it functions as best, as none are given too much time to germinate before Krokidas moves on to the next. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonOct 15, 2013
Kill Your Darlings is an undernourished and over-emphatic film. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesOct 15, 2013
There’s a heart here, but with all the superficial noise, it’s hard to hear it beating. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereNov 7, 2013
It adds nothing to our understanding of "Howl," and the movie is exactly what the poem isn’t: ordinary. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireOct 18, 2013
Kill Your Darlings presents a minor prelude to a major literary movement. Read full review
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