Beat

I enjoyed this film, the actors being excellent & NORMAN REEDUS a talent I had not previously had the luck to experience. Courtney Love & Keifer Sutherland are spot on as the duelling couple. Ron Livingston's part as Ginsberg is brief yet assured, & the dialogue is crackling. I bought this for £1 in Sainsburys whilst doing the shopping. It's one of my best DVD buys, actually. It's certainly an ambitious film, yet it works.

The scenes are the right length & the director never gets consumed with his subject- this could easily have been an obsessive project. All in all, a worthy look at the moment when Burroughs became a writer.

I wasn't expecting much (truth be told) but was quite pleasantly surprised. As much as history equates to fiction (and from what I've heard/read this movie must be taken as a work of near-fiction.. "sources" being what they are..) this story still made for a pretty good motion picture. Courtney Love is a very good actress, and not many parts is she better suited to than that of Joan Burroughs. I liked her performance. Keifer Sutherland also made a pretty convincing Bill. The guy that played Lucien Carr (Norman Reedus?) was also impressive.

As "interpretive" as the story was I didn't resent it as much as I thought I might. I imagine William Burroughs, were he still in the land of the living, might have had a few issues with this film but hey, movies always without fail in-one-way-or-another romanticize the truth (truth, truth.. mmmm.. ponder it) and the movie DID do that.. but not as grotesquely as it could've and for that, if nothing else, I liked it. Well-observed (in a secondary, nobody-here-was-actually-there, speculative kind of way) the story still flowed (aided by the, in my opinion, very good performances.) Keifer made William Burroughs seem to have emotions, and strong ones at that, which was interesting.. as you never really picture him like that. (Going by the tone of his spoken-word recordings maybe? the dour face? the slightly contemptible countenance? I don't know.. you just never think of him as the howl-at-the-moon type.. I think Keifer's attempt at humanizing him was quite admirable really.)

The script wasn't bad (could've been MUCH worse.. riddled with beatnik cliches..) there were no real cringe-worthy moments (no-one said anything to the effect of "are you hip to all that jazz" etc etc.. which was a relief.) I liked the movie overall. It's no major statement, and you'd do infinitely better to read some of the great biographies out there if you want an overview of the tale and the beats in general, but the movie is a harmless, and quite enjoyable, footnote.

I liked the quotes at the end (their attempt at a summery i suppose..) especially the gorgeous quote from Lucien Carr. Oh yes and Ron Livingston was also in fine form as poor old lovelorn Allen Ginsberg.

This is a film drenched in a palpable sadness: the sadness of being gay in the 1950s; the sadness of being a woman in the 1950s; the sadness of being anything out of the ordinary in the 1950s. But I've been rereading a lot of Kerouac lately, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the whole Beat Movement was propelled by sadness.

This is also an intriguing film, though I wouldn't call it a great one. Anyone interested in the Beats should see it. But if you don't know the back story of these characters, I can imagine that much of what they do doesn't make a lot of sense.

I thought Courtney Love gave a remarkable performance, surprisingly nuanced, aided by her off center beauty. In Kiefer Sutherland's defense, I'm not sure even Bill Burroughs could play Bill Burroughs. And I wish Kyle Secor and Ron Livingston could have traded roles. I thought Secor captured Allen Ginsberg's manic charisma better, to the extent that when he was on screen, I felt like he and not Livingston, was actually Ginsberg.

The bulk of the film takes place in Mexico City with side-trips to more remote areas. The scenery outside the City is lush and lovely. The interactions among the actors reflect these locales. I found the film extremely watchable, and was fascinated with the performances. All the lead roles are clearly developed. I loved Courtney Love. She is as beautiful as a modern day Anna Magnani and never has a bad scene. Seeing Kiefer Sutherland in something so unlike his "24" role is a delight. Ron Livingston's performance is controlled and finely honed. Norman Reedus presents raw energy. The cinematography is excellent with wondrous scenes of light and color. One can almost smell the tropical foliage. This is decidedly Courtney Love's movie, since she plays Burroughs' tragic wife. The interactions of these characters, based on real-life people during that time period, is a mesmerizing glimpse into lives in emotional turmoil.

A great find for anyone who finds themselves enjoying the Beat Generation literature, this is the story of one of the most tragic and pivotal points in their story, the death of Joan Burroughs.

Lucien Carr and Allen Ginsberg, on the eve of their skyrocket to fame, take a trip to Mexico City and visit Joan and William S. Burroughs. Burroughs has excused himself to Guatemala with a boyfriend, so Joan and the two old friends hit the road, reflecting on Lucien's time in jail, unrequited love, Bill's adultery, and the entire meaning of what exactly Kerouac was romanticizing. If you aren't drawn to the Beats and their story, you may want to stray away. However, if you want a sort of proto-"On the Road" mixed with the true story of the events preceding this pivotal moment in Beat history, you will enjoy this film.