This film is a somewhat imagined or fictionalized version of something that really happened. Future Beat Generation authors Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs were all part of the same social circle circa 1944 at Columbia University. In the center of that circle was mutual friend Lucian Carr, who exhorted them towards creating their art. Within the year Carr murdered a gay admirer, ostensibly in self-defense, and pulled the three authors into his manufactured defense.
So, this film's got everything that it needs to work well. The milleau is inherently interesting. The personalities, the characters involved with this story are very interesting. And a murder occurring in the middle of a group of young idealistic college-age men, to their disbelief, definitely qualifies as strong dramatic tension. I knew going into this film that it'd manage to be interesting, if nothing else.
It is, and it's also beautifully made. The recreation of early 1940's New York looks great, appropriately dank, and wildly colorful. The performances here are extremely good - Ben Foster, Jack Huston, and Dane DeHaan are each great in this film as Burroughs, Kerouac, and Carr respectively. Daniel Radcliffe, i.e. Harry Potter, whose Alan Ginsburg is the central character in the film, gives an outstanding performance. I didn't doubt that he could act, but I'm surprised at how well he did act this chcracter, who is quite different from himself - it's a great performance.
The movie is thoroughly interesting. I suppose that it would be less so to someone who didn't know who these guys were and what they went on to be - though it'd still be a reasonably compelling drama. To me, the film's a strong A.
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