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Barton Fink
Joel and Ethan Cohen take us on one of their most bizarre cinematic journeys with a 1991 sleeper called Barton Fink.
John Turturro plays the title character, an intellectual New York playwright in 1941 who is offered a contract to write movies in Hollywood. A curious but reluctant Fink arrives in Los Angeles and is less than impressed when his first assignment is to write a wrestling picture that is going to star Wallace Beery. Barton moves into a creepy old Hollywood Hotel where he develops a friendship with his neighbor, Charlie (John Goodman), an insurance salesman. Barton is also suffering from a severe case of writer's block.
Things get even more complicated for Barton when he meets one of his writing idols (John Mahoney) who turns out not to be the man Barton thought he was, evidenced in his abusive treatment of his unhappy wife (Judy Davis). Eventually, a series of events do nothing but solidify Fink's writer's block.
The Cohen Brothers have constructed what appears to be a cinematic lambasting of Hollywood and possibly how they were treated upon their first arrival. This cinematic concept of Hollywood is alternately riveting and disturbing. The pervading theme here that New York is the center of the universe and that Hollywood is a living hell is driven home with a sledgehammer. Barton has encounters with Hollywood movers and shakers throughout the film where the people Barton meets, particularly a maniacal studio head played by Michael Lerner, who received an Oscar nomination, appear almost insane, but their behavior in this movie is on par with most LA big shots so you have to wonder exactly how jaundiced the Cohen Brothers' eye is here.
There's a lot that happens here that defies logic, but it's the Cohen Brothers so I forgive. The film is absolutely breathtaking to look at...cinematography, set design, and the Oscar nominated costumes are incredible. That hotel where Barton lives definitely evokes memories of the Overlook in The Shining. Turturro commands the screen in the title role and gets solid support from Lerner, Goodman, and Davis. Fans of the Cohens, belly up.
Joel and Ethan Cohen take us on one of their most bizarre cinematic journeys with a 1991 sleeper called Barton Fink.
John Turturro plays the title character, an intellectual New York playwright in 1941 who is offered a contract to write movies in Hollywood. A curious but reluctant Fink arrives in Los Angeles and is less than impressed when his first assignment is to write a wrestling picture that is going to star Wallace Beery. Barton moves into a creepy old Hollywood Hotel where he develops a friendship with his neighbor, Charlie (John Goodman), an insurance salesman. Barton is also suffering from a severe case of writer's block.
Things get even more complicated for Barton when he meets one of his writing idols (John Mahoney) who turns out not to be the man Barton thought he was, evidenced in his abusive treatment of his unhappy wife (Judy Davis). Eventually, a series of events do nothing but solidify Fink's writer's block.
The Cohen Brothers have constructed what appears to be a cinematic lambasting of Hollywood and possibly how they were treated upon their first arrival. This cinematic concept of Hollywood is alternately riveting and disturbing. The pervading theme here that New York is the center of the universe and that Hollywood is a living hell is driven home with a sledgehammer. Barton has encounters with Hollywood movers and shakers throughout the film where the people Barton meets, particularly a maniacal studio head played by Michael Lerner, who received an Oscar nomination, appear almost insane, but their behavior in this movie is on par with most LA big shots so you have to wonder exactly how jaundiced the Cohen Brothers' eye is here.
There's a lot that happens here that defies logic, but it's the Cohen Brothers so I forgive. The film is absolutely breathtaking to look at...cinematography, set design, and the Oscar nominated costumes are incredible. That hotel where Barton lives definitely evokes memories of the Overlook in The Shining. Turturro commands the screen in the title role and gets solid support from Lerner, Goodman, and Davis. Fans of the Cohens, belly up.