Featured Movies
Partners
Barton FinkThis sharp, black comedy set in 1941 Hollywood was written by Joel and Ethan Coen as a diversion when they themselves had writer's block midway through 1990's Miller's Crossing.
There is little other resemblance between the Coen brothers and the hapless Barton Fink (Turturro), a vain, naive New York playwright brilliantly portrayed by Turturro. The character was based more on Clifford Odets, who wrote The Big Knife, another bitter satire on Hollywood.
It opens with Fink, the self-proclaimed - and self-obsessed - people's dramatist, enjoying critical acclaim for his play 'Bare Ruined Choirs'. Persuaded by his agent that a stint in Hollywood will fund other, more noble projects, Fink washes up in a grubby LA hotel attempting to write a cheapo B-movie about wrestling - a subject to which he can bring nothing but mild disdain. Blocked and lonely, he meets alcoholic novelist Mayhew (Mahoney, in a role inspired by William Faulkner), and travelling insurance salesman Charlie (Goodman) - a guy who might tell Fink a thing or two, if only Fink could be bothered to listen.
On one level it operates as an astute satire on the vulgarity of the Hollywood dream factory. It's also a ruthless depiction of a mediocre artist convinced his talent affords him insights into lives of which he really knows nothing. It's the drive towards a nightmarish, Kafkaesque conclusion however, that makes this such a darkly powerful tale, and the final, fiery moments are as inventive and sophisticated as anything the brothers' have achieved.
|
