Barton Fink

Barton Fink (1991): starring John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Steve Buscemi
Barton Fink gives us a Coen brothers skewering of hollywood, and perhaps a semi-autobiographical parable as well. Barton (as played by the almost unrecognizeable John Turturro) is a New York playwright who's starting to enjoy quite a bit of success when hollywood comes knocking on his door. He reluctantly agrees to have meetings with executives, but in truth is less interested in writing movie scripts than in writing something that represents "The People". The irony here is that while Barton wants nothing more than to write stories about common, everyday people, he is mortified by what the common people enjoy as entertainment. Especially when that entertainment is a B movie wrestling picture, which is what he is contracted to write. He's moved into a rundown hotel and soon befriends his noisy neighbor (John Goodman). Not too long afterwards, the movie takes a rather surrealistic turn, which at times seems like the Coens trying to write themselves out of a hole. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, as the movie doesn't have a whole lot of excitement taking place initially (well, it has all the excitement of a writer sitting in front of his typewriter with writer's block). I enjoyed the performances, I enjoyed the characters, particularily that of the ridiculously over-the-top hollywood executive (Michael Lerner) and the alcoholic southern writer (John Mahoney). The best part of the movie however, has got to be John Goodman and his character, Charles Meadows. His introduction seems initally terrifying, then charming, and then terrifying again. And I can't help but think the Coens injected a little auto-biographical influence into Barton Fink (hell, the guy looks like he could be the 3rd brother!), with it's portrayal of the soul-crushing experience that is film-making in hollywood. There is an odd bit of anti-semitism that pops up throughout the movie as well and I'm not sure what message was intended with this, other than "jews can't catch a break in show biz"? Maybe too many unresolved mysteries linger in this film, and perhaps the early 90s dates this film a little too much, but it's still a great movie by some great filmmakers.
**** out of *****

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No, it's an old meme, like this: