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Rated: R; Genres: Comedy, Drama; With: John Goodman and John Turturro
B
By Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is a film critic for EW

BARTON FINK (R) Barton (John Turturro), the hero of the Coen brothers' teasingly enigmatic satirical fable, is a naive, idealistic playwright of the early '40s-a prime specimen of nerdus intellectualus. The film, a kind of highfalutin Twilight Zone episode, is about what happens when he accepts a job as a contract screenwriter in Hollywood. Barton moves into a fleabag hotel, where the halls are like spectral passageways to another world. And then? Then he can't write a word. Maybe he's choking under pressure, or maybe it's just that everywhere he goes things seem a little bit off. Barton Fink has an atmosphere of languid comic anxiety (it's like a cross between Eraserhead and Angel Heart), and it's fun to watch, if only because you have no idea what's coming next. The Coens, though, aren't really interested in Barton as a character. He's meant to be a fool who's getting his cosmic comeuppance, so it's hard to empathize with what he's going through. B


Posted Aug 30, 1991
 

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