Has the 2013 Sundance Film Festival just discovered its first breakout star? Judging by the reaction from the audience flowing out of the world premiere of Beat generation origin tale “Kill Your Darlings”, the answer is a resounding yes. Hollywood.com editor Matt Patches enthuses, “Kill Your Darlings is high caliber in every department. Radcliffe and DeHaan are ferocious as Ginsberg and Carr.” That would be “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe and our 2012 Breakout Star Dane DeHaan playing Beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Lucien Carr in John Krokidas’ feature directorial debut, which FirstShowing.net Managing Editor Ethan Anderton says “is electrified with energy, emotionally charged.”

Anderton goes on to single out DeHaan’s performance as Carr, calling it “one hell of a performance” and DeHaan himself as “a young force to be reckoned with.” And he’s not alone. While the film itself is getting a range of reviews from the effusive (“Kill Your Darlings is terrific: Unhinged as it catches fire, taut as it ratchets suspense. Spit-take one-liners, great perfs across board,” says Logan Hill) to muted (ThePlaylist’s Rodrigo Perez says, “the unsatiated thirst for experience and abhorrence to conformity is a big one, but it tends to get repeated over and over again like a hammer on a nail; each character monologuing about their desire to challenge the status quo”), and Radcliffe is getting the most flashbulbs for leaving “Harry Potter” behind, DeHaan is unquestionably the breakout star of the film.

The Hollywood Reporter enthuses “the enormously talented DeHaan is a febrile, magnetic presence, making no mystery of why Allen, David and Jack would all be so drawn to fickle Lucien” while other adjectives like “magnetic”, “unforgettable” and “a standout” have also been thrown around. Still, the movie may prove controversial and a hard sell to more mainstream studios, with The Wrap noting it “was received with warm applause if not bidding-war-style enthusiasm.” No distribution deals have closed yet.