Pretentious as it is, I think you have to have read some Cassady (specifically in this case, the Joan Anderson letter, the opening to which is, to my mind, one of the most brilliant paragraphs ever written) to really understand where this movie is coming from and what it's about. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Cassady's writing, so I quite enjoyed this film. But I know a lot more people who hated it than didn't.