Barton Fink
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“Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind!”
Overview
After accepting a contract from Capitol Pictures to write film scripts, up-and-coming playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) settles into a sweltering Los Angeles hotel and makes acquaintance with his chummy neighbour Charlie Meadows (John Goodman). His first assignment: a wrestling picture. But what actually is a wrestling picture? Famous for mining the struggles of the ’common man’ for human truths, Fink finds himself stuck in a torturous state of writer's block and finds no remedy outside – Hollywood is a much stranger place than he’d thought.
Why You Should See This Film
In a rare Cannes sweep, Barton Fink took home the Palme d'Or as well as awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Turturro) in 1991 – it truly is one of the best Coen Bros. films and features some of the most electrifying work from Turturro and Goodman. Alongside Adaptation, it’s also the most truthful depiction of the writing process in all its maddening doubt and spiraling difficulty, which came to the Coens after a real slog of writing trouble while working on Miller’s Crossing. Underscored by unsettling Carter Burwell strings and lensed by the legendary Roger Deakins (his first of many collaborations with the Coens), Barton Fink is a funny, surreal and sweaty descent into madness and one of our all-time favourites.
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