Barton Fink
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Movie Reviews of Barton Fink
Movie Review: "BECAUSE YOU DON'T LISTEN!!!" (4.5 stars)
Summary: 4 Stars
I think it'd be safe to say that I think this is by far the Coen Brothers' strangest film. I've seen all of them with the exception of "Blood Simple" as this review is being written. "Barton Fink" is a dark and subtle comedy with some outrageous and shocking moments. It even ends in a way that people may find confusing. Still, I was very entertained all the way through.The movie focuses around a writer by the name of Barton Fink. He has just finished a play that is getting rave reviews from the critics, but he isn't as impressed with the overall product. He goes to Hollywood when he receives a job offer, but it's an offer unlike any he has taken before. His job is to write a wrestling picture, something that Fink knows very little about. When he gets to the very unimpressive hotel to begin writing the script, he is only able to write a sentence or two... and then he goes blank. He has no idea how the script should go and it's driving him nuts, as he is a perfectionist. His lively and loud neighbor, Charlie, takes a liking to him and offers his friendship and advice. But as Fink tries harder and harder to focus on the script, his life slowly starts to spin out of control and leads him to an unspeakable predicament.
As I said before, this is a very, VERY strange movie. It's strange because it's so subtle and it disguises itself as something so innocent and harmless until you see the plot come full-circle. The Coen Brothers always know how to keep us on our toes when it comes to movies, and they prove that fact clearly in "Barton Fink." Some may be confused by the third act. I admit that I don't even know if I completely get it. I think I have an idea, but that's all it is, an idea. Does that mean that I didn't like the movie? Of course not! In fact, it made me like it more because I kept thinking about it over and over again. I'm even thinking about it right now, hoping I can put all the pieces together.
The acting was fantastic, as usual. John Turturro gives it his all in the lead role. It is clear that he was the right person for the job. John Goodman is also very great and hilarious, and you even get to see some of his dark side. What it all comes down to is that everybody did their roles justice. There are a lot of crazy and interesting characters that Fink encounters during the film that are really worth getting to know. The film was very well-directed and well-written.
As with "Miller's Crossing," this DVD doesn't have very much to offer. The picture and sound quality is pretty good, so I see no problems there. The extras included on the DVD are trailers, deleted scenes, and a still gallery. This is the perfect movie for an audio commentary, especially to listen to when you get to the remaining moments of the film. But alas, one is not included. It is a shame, because I really think it would've given the DVD that extra punch that it needed. Well, at least there are some extras and the trailers are pretty funny. (I do agree with the one reviewer who said that they chose a bad spot of the film to incorporate into the menu screen.) I'd recommend staying away from the "Barton Fink" trailer and save that for afterwards. It doesn't give away a whole lot, but it does give away some key moments.
I don't think "Barton Fink" is the Coen Brothers' greatest achievement, but it is definitely an enjoyable and entertaining film. It leaves you thinking after it's all said and done. And the dark and very subtle humor is always a joy to experience. This is another one that's not for everybody, but if you feel brave to experience something new and daring, why not give "Barton Fink" a shot? I'm very happy that it is now a part of my DVD library and it is one I can definitely see myself watching again sometime soon.
Movie Review: Did I miss the point?
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok. Before you read this, don't get me wrong. I liked this movie...a lot. It steps outside the conventions of hollywood. But I'm not exactly sure I understand the whole message. So here is what I got from the movie...decide for yourself:Barton Fink, successful pretentious New York playwright is commissioned by a hollywood agency to create a screenplay for a low budget movie about wresteling. Fink reluctantly takes the job, despite his preconcieved notions of hollywood corrupting his values. This is the setup for the remainder of the plot (which I really don't want to go into, so if you want a plot outline, read another review). Suffice it to say that the plot line seems feasable -- even real -- but only up to a point.
Here's what I think the Coen's were trying to do (and no one else seems to get this...at least, not from any of the reviews I've read). The plot during the entire second half of the movie is completely implausable. It is almost at the precise time in the movie when the plot becomes implausable that Fink's ideas begin to flow, and his writers block is suddenly lifted. I believe that these implausable events in the movie WERE the events of Fink's screenplay.
This makes sense if you think about it. The events of the second half of the movie seem unreal...even surreal to a point. In fact, one could say that they are more similar to the plot of a B movie...the exact type of screenplay that Fink was commissioned to write. Fink's ideas began to flow almost immediately after these bizarre and twisted events began to occour. In other words, all of these strange events were all in Fink's mind. In fact, after all of it started to unfold, Fink simply sat down and started writing
Didn't anyone who saw this movie find it even remotely curious why Fink was never held responsible for his actions, or that he never tried to hide the evidence (the bloddy mattress, for one)? These events are precisely the type of cliched hackney pouring out of hollywood that Fink was trying to avoid, yet he became caught right in the middle of them.
You may find yourself wondering why, then, would Fink be writing about all these events, when they have nothing to do with wresteling. If you think about it, though, these strange events revolved around Charlie Meadows. The fact that Charlie used to be a wrestler ties the entire thing together.
At the end of it all, we are still inside the writer's mind. We are stuck "inside the painting" -- in Fink's own personal hell.
Even if this isn't what the Coen's were trying to accomplish, I still think that this movie surpassed all my expectations. This is a very well crafted piece of cinema.
Movie Review: EVERYBODY WRITES ABOUT HOLLYWOOD, BUT EVER TRIED TO LIVE IN SCHOLEM ALECHEM-LAND?
Summary: 4 Stars
If it works for you its a financial paradise. If it doesn't, its a culturalloy desolate and desolating carnival of sunshine, depravity and decay. You can't have it both ways. But the truth is, Hollywood is not only what it is; that is to say a movie-biz carney town, but a metropolitan entity of mythological dimension. Like Venice, it's improbable; both flashy and shabby, simultaneously. And it too stinks. But...
In BARTON FINK Hollywood is one of the central characters of the story. And the story, proceeding out of Barton's persona, his east-coast, Jesish/Communist up-bringing and moralistic view, has a palpable middle-european flavor. It's much like a Dostoyevski or a Scholem Aleichem story, both grippingly funny, god-haunted, and hideous. BF has elements of self-parody in it too, and glibly displays that form of self-hatred possessing some Jews, who refer to themselves, in private, as Kikes. A throwback to the Ellis Island experience when immigrant Polish/Russian Jews unable to read and write English, refused to "make their mark" on a form with a cross (for reasons not obvious to the goyem) but instead chose to mark their forms with a circle, or Kikle, and became -- with their decendants -- forever Kikes. And this wonderful nugget of self-identification and self-loathing is part and parcel of what is the movie business, a Jewish business, within, for and surrounded by a population of white or anglo-saxon gentiles it simultaneously employs and entertains, who not only hate them, but (in the war-time era) segregates them, legally, in housing and everywhere else.
NOSTALGIA: I guess I was about 12 when looking through the Chicago Tribune want ads one Sunday, I asked my mother about something, some phrase I kept coming across. It was something like "Non-christians need not apply." What's it mean? She said, "No Jews."
Well, BF takes place in or around 1941, so the time is about right. It's Segregated Hollywood. And there's Barton, with his kinky pompadour and Andre Gide Socialist spectacles jitterbugging at the USO with a pretty shikseh. A social idealist, hired to do a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Nu?
Listen to me: This is a picture that will break your heart if you haven't sold out already!
Movie Review: Early Coen Brothers -A Great Dark Horse Film from 1991
Summary: 4 Stars
For a long time I had this film on my "must see" list. If your local video stores are anything like mine, you'll be lucky to find this title on VHS, and you probably won't find it on DVD (which is why I call it "Lackluster" Video.)
So I finally just bought the DVD without even seeing it first. Like other Coen brothers films, Barton Fink gets better with each repeated viewing. The viewer "gets" something new each time that was easily missed before.
To me, John Turturro is probably the second best dramatic actor in Hollywood right now - only Kevin Spacey ranks higher in my book. He can move effortlessly from a Latino (the Big Lebowski, Mr. Deeds) to a Jewish man (Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing) and his dark, penetrating eyes are about as expressive as they come.
Watching his relationship with John Goodman's character evolve from total discomfort to total dependence is amazing to behold. Throw in Steve Buschemi as Chet!, the bellhop / shoeshine boy who always writes his name with an exclamation point, some really whacky Hollywood producers, a hard drinking novelist (played by John Mahoney, aka Frasier's dad) and his sexy sultry southern secretary, and you've got all the ingredients for a classic Coen Brothers trip through yet another Twilight Zone.
I only give it 4 stars because the pacing feels uneven in certain places - it just lacks the tight coherence of Fargo or Miller's Crossing. The film has a lot of weird, close-up shots, of a mosquito biting someone, wallpaper coming unglued and paper being typed upon. Though I must say the ending is absolutely brilliant. The more I talk about it, the more I want to watch it again !
PS - was 1991 a great year for movies or what ? Besides Barton Fink, 1991 gave us Silence of the Lambs (winner of a zillion Oscars), the Fisher King (one of my all-time favorites and a highly underrated film), sci-fi heavyweights Terminator 2 and Star Trek VI, chick flick megahits Thelma and Louise, Prince of Tides and Fried Green Tomatoes, and of course Disney's epic Beauty and the Beast.
Movie Review: Great film. One quibble with DVD...
Summary: 4 Stars
As is often the case with the Coen's work, the simultaneity of absurdity and high artistic sheen creates a pleasurable cognitive dissonance in the viewer: if this is a comedy, why is it so imposing; if this is supposed to be serious, why do I feel like laughing? As easy as it is to laugh at, "Barton Fink" is a film that's hard to laugh off, and Carter Burwell's score must not be overlooked when considering why. That it is as haunting and as tragic as any written for a comedy falls squarely within the category of safe statements. The cinematography, the costume design, and (in particular) the obsessive production design (all well served by this DVD release) are as fascinating as anything happening within them, complementing one another impeccably and evoking a dreamlike time and place far removed from our own. Period pieces have always been the Brother's fixation and forte, and "Barton Fink" is one of their best. (One wonders whether they were spoofing themselves and their team's special proclivities when they set 1998's "The Big Lebowski" during the less-than-enchanted "Time of the Gulf War", 1991).
That quibble: the DVD menu screen reveals the horrific and completely unexpected climax of the film. The viewer -veteran or novice- has no option but to witness this before progressing to the film itself.