BARTON FINK

This sharp, black comedy set in 1941 Hollywood and centring on a pretentious screenwriter with writer's block, was written by Joel and Ethan Coen as a diversion when they themselves had writer's block midway through Miller's Crossing.

In 1941, an intellectual New York playwright has huge success with his play. He is called by Hollywood and, despite some reservations, relocates to L.A. to start writing for the movies. Set up in a seedy and slightly creepy hotel, he begins working on his first assignment, a wrestling movie for actor Wallace Beery. The problem is he can't think of anything to write, not a word or a punctuation mark. He wants to change the genre of wrestling picture much to the horror of studio bosses. But no inspiration or ideas are coming.

Paralyzed by the worst case of writer's block he's ever experienced, Fink flees the blank page and takes up with some extremely strange characters on Hollywood's lower fringes, hoping that the "common man" will inspire him to create again. His neighbour, an ex college wrestler, but now selling insurance, Charlie Meadows keeps dropping by handing Barton tips. Barton eventually sees the man as his best friend, a choice he will later regret. The people he trusted eventually horrify him, and things go from bad to worse.

An amazing story with complex and likeable characters. John Turturro is as good as ever. He makes the character a confused no-one. You don’t know weather you like him or you think he’s a egotistical day dreamer. He becomes Barton with ease. John Goodman is also excellent as the fat, cuddly jolly man with a sinister side. Always remembered as Rosanne’s husband in the American sitcom, is a nasty patch on his record. His filmography with the Coens is astonishing, just forget Flintstones! Also Judy Davis deserves a mention for her career best performance. The Coen’s guide us through the action with their usual visual flair and black, satirical dialogue. They go further than poking fun at the vulgarity of the dream factory by moving the story into Kafka territory, with an apocalyptic climax. There is a lot of unsympathetic Barton Fink characters in films. The character was based more on Clifford Odets, who wrote The Big Knife, another bitter satire on Hollywood. Barton Fink is steeped in homage, to everything from Stanley Kubrick's ‘The Shining’ to Roman Polanski's ‘The Tenant’, in which inanimate objects like the wallpaper represent the decaying mind of the protagonist. A must see. Sit back and watch the Coen Brothers flush Hollywood down the toilet pipes!

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