Barton Fink (1991)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Barton Fink (1991) – J. Coen & E. Coen

The Coen Brothers fourth feature is certainly passing strange – but like much of their work, it also contains affectionate references to the past.  Here, we follow Barton Fink (John Turturro) who is a playwright in the late ‘30s/early ‘40s, focused on the “common man” but nevertheless enticed to Hollywood.  Once there, we meet well-known archetypes: the studio head (Michael Lerner channelling Louis B. Mayer) and the drunken novelist turned screenwriter (John Mahoney channelling William Faulkner).  Fink is asked to draft a script for the latest Wallace Beery wrestling picture but he immediately faces writer’s block.  His next-door neighbour in the flea-bitten hotel he’s chosen to call home, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), an insurance salesman, tries to help out -- but Fink basically ignores his input (critic Jonathan Rosenbaum sees in this a sneering attitude toward the high brow artist by the Coens).  And then, and then, and then, we watch Barton suffer as he tries to write and things grow darker in his head (and around him).  Some believe that the events that transpire are symbolic (are they only in Baron’s head?) but it is just as easy to read this (black comedy) straight, if not a little bit ironic.  I hadn’t seen Barton Fink since the ‘90s and I recalled it only as “claustrophobic” but it is better than that description, with stellar acting (including from Judy Davis and Tony Shalhoub) and cool art direction (not to mention Turturro’s hair) that maintain one’s attention.