Director: John Krokidas
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.0
Cringe-inducing story of the Beatniks (centering around good old Columbia University), as budding poet Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) meets up with an extroverted fellow student, Lucien (Dane DeHaan) who is being actively pursued by former (and much older) lover David (Michael C. Hall). I'm not sure many got a chance to read And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks - written by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs but shelved for a long time - but it is a far more intriguing assessment of the perverse Carr-Kammerer relationship than this movie is capable of doing: not only is it strangely cast (Ben Foster as Burroughs? Radcliffe as Ginsberg?) but the whole Let's Shred Books and Reinvent Literature! aspects are done with grating pop-enthusiasm. It is worth taking time to praise Hall in the role as Kammerer - his talents have largely been relegated to television (Six Feet Under, Dexter) and what he does with a minimally-written role is extraordinary (also of note is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Ginsberg's Mom: still doing the crazy lady routine better than anyone could).
