An overwhelming approval of the critical world to this movie is additional signature of the decline of American intellectual. While this movie of some interest as a history, it failed to tell why the Beat Generation seemed so important when it emerged or why it is relevant now. It will change very little if the story told was, for instance, about young painters or astrophysicists. Biopics in general are a difficult genre, but there are decent examples. For example "Pollock" could stay on the message of painting and nobody would confuse Harris' character with a writer or computer pioneer.
I perceive that the approval is the result of the general feeling that the movie is "about culture" and, somehow, must be important or good.
