A little over an hour-and-a-half, but seems much longer. Little to no conflict one can care about - Kammerer just pops in and out of the narrative, which can't sustain any sense of tension between him and Carr, or Ginsberg. The central figures of Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Carr come across as shallow and self-absorbed. Perhaps at that young age they were, but that doesn't make for compelling drama. And the montage surrounding the murder, with its heavy-handed penetration imagery, is so over-the-top obvious to be almost ridiculous. The cinematography is just ugly - I realize the lighting, color palette etc. were deliberate artistic choices, but it still looks unappealing. The actors do a good job with what they are given (Foster as Burroughs is especially good, capturing his cadence, inflection, and mannerisms without descending into mimicry), but overall the film is unfocused, slack, and unpleasant.
Review of Kill Your Darlings
