Watch Beat

Based on real life events, Beat tells the intertwining stories of a number of famous US writers in the 1940s and 50s. Focusing on the doomed relationship between author William S. Burroughs and his wife Joan Vollmer, the film uses flashback to tell the story of the married couple and their friendship with fellow troubled writers Lucien Carr and Allen Ginsberg. Beginning in 1951, the movie quickly flashes back to 1944, when the relationship between the couple is strained by the sexual affair Burroughs is continuing with a man called Lee, and the murder of David Kammerer by Carr. The story of the murder and the tangled love lives of the beat generation of poets and authors is exposed during the police investigation into Kammerer's murder committed after he rebuffed the advances of Lucien Carr. Beat then returns to 1951 and provides a glimpse into the difficult relationship Burroughs and Vollmer share, with both feeling the strain of living in a loveless relationship as Burroughs follows Lee to Guatemala. The doomed relationship takes a final, unexpected turn as the need to live life on the edge pushes Burroughs and Vollmer closer to destruction than ever before.