Barton Fink **** (John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Jon Polito, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub) – Classic Movie Review 476

‘There’s only one thing stranger than what’s going on inside his head. What’s going on outside.’

John Turturro stars as the eponymous Barton Fink in the Coen Brothers Joel and Ethan’s clever, witty 1991 Hollywood black comedy film Barton Fink, which won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for three Oscars. Turturro plays a 1930s hit New York intellectual playwright who in 1941 goes to Los Angeles to write scripts for a wrestling picture that is to star the real-life Wallace Beery.

There in Tinseltown he gets mixed up with several kinds of weirdoes, such as the movie mogul Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner), a jovial insurance salesman in the hotel room next door called Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) and a famous alcoholic writer’s girlfriend called Audrey Taylor (Judy Davis). Not to mention John Mahoney’s W P Mayhew, Jon Polito’s Lou Breeze, Steve Buscemi’s Chet and Tony Shalhoub’s Ben Geisler.

Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton Fink develops severe writer’s block. Charlie Meadows tries to help, but bizarre events come between Fink and a script.

This triple Cannes award winner (the Palme d’Or for best picture, best director Joel Coen and best actor Turturro) is extremely smart, stylish, enjoyable and different. The acting is superb from several of the cinema’s best character actors looking as pleased as Punch at the wonderful chances the Coens offer them to perform against type so extravagantly. Lerner is outstanding, as his best supporting actor Oscar nomination suggests, and so is Goodman as his best supporting actor Golden Globe nomination suggests.

The smart and stylish thing extends to the wonderful look of the movie, with its lovely period Art Direction (Dennis Gassner), Set Decoration (Nancy Haigh) and Costume Design (Richard Hornung), which were also Oscar nominated.

The script is maybe just a shade thin, and there are no easy laughs or yards of plot to follow. Did you want them anyway? But, nevertheless, this lengthy movie (at 116 minutes) flashes past like a dream.

Also in the cast are Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Jon Polito, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub, Chelcea Ross, Richard Portnow, Christopher Murney, David Warrilow, Meagen Fay, Lance Davis, Harry Bugin, and I M Hobson as Derek.

Barton Fink is directed by Joel Coen, runs 116 minutes, is made by Circle Films and Working Title Films, is released by Twentieth Century Fox (1991) (US) and Rank Film Organisation (1992) (UK), is written by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, is shot by Roger Deakins, is produced by Ethan Coen, is scored by Carter Burwell, and is designed by Dennis Gassner.

‘Between Heaven and Hell There’s Always Hollywood!’

Michael C. Lerner (June 22, 1941 – April 8, 2023).

Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Lerner died on 8 April 2023 at the age of 81. He also appeared notably in Elf, Godzilla, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. He  also played Arnold Rothstein in Eight Men Out (1988), Phil Gillman in Amos & Andrew (1993), and The Warden in No Escape (1994).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 476

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