The Beat Generation opens with Louis Armstrong berating the Beats in song. “I think you’re headed for the blues,” he declares. It gets wackier from there on this 1959 low-budget indie out on Blu-ray. The Beats in this film are out for “kicks, right here and now,” and communicate in unadulterated jive. Among the expected weirdos is a Schopenhauer-quoting rapist. More interesting are the cops for what they reveal about attitudes in ’50s America.
