Barton Fink (1991)

Starring John Turturro

Directed by Joel Coen

Produced by Ethan Coen

Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a playwright who is hired by Capital Pictures, a Hollywood studio, to write a sceenplay for a wrestling picture starring Wallace Beery. Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner) , the head of the studio, puts a lot on Barton's shoulders.

Barton is unfamiliar with wrestling and has a lot of trouble getting started writing. He tries talking to W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), a novelist and screenwriter, who insists that Barton calls him Bill. Barton turns to Ben Geisler (Tony Shaloub), who is slated to direct the picture, but Geisler isn't much help either. Barton is an artist but what he seems to have found is an industry.

Barton is staying at the Earle Hotel. Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), his next door neighbor, is very affable. The wallpaper in Barton's room is peeling. There are mosquitos in the room. 

Barton turns to Audrey Taylor (Judy Davis), Bill's girlfriend, for help. She comes over. She stays the night. The next morning Barton wakes up and everything has gone nuts. Audrey is dead. Her body is bloody. Charlie helps gets rid of the body for him.

He doesn't tell Barton what he did with the body. He leaves a medium sized box with Barton.

A day or two later Barton gets a visit from a couple police detectives. They tell him all about Charlie, his real name is Carl Mundt and he's a serial killer. They want to know what Barton knows, including where they can find him.

Notes

There are a few actors of note in this movie that are not mentioned above. Jon Polito plays Lou Breeze, Jack Lipnick's assistant. Steve Buscemi plays Chet the only employee of the Hotel Earle. Richard Portnow, whom I know best from the Sopranos where he played Tony Soprano's lawyer, plays one of the police detectives.

Thoughts

I saw this movie before, in the 90s, but not when it was first released. I didn't know what to make of it then. I'm still not sure what to make of it now, 25-30 years later. It kept my attention but I'm not sure if I got much of anything from the movie.

I decided to give this movie another try after seeing Hail Caesar and enjoying it. 

The movie seems kind of normal, but a bit strange, until Barton wakes up to find out that Audrey is dead. It really gets weird after that. It felt like they were just throwing things out. I'm not sure that it was supposed to make any sense. I definitely feel as though it is a commentary on the film industry. Maybe if I worked in Hollywood I would get more out of this movie than I did.

**

I've listened to a couple podcasts about the movie since I watched it. They have given me things to think about and added value to the experience but I still think the movie is little too hard to grasp.