Review of Barton Fink (1991) by Jackson C — 09 May 2013

A man moves from New York to Hollywood hoping to make it as a film writer, Barton Fink as a whole is a satire to the notion of artistic creations. While writers in the story like Fink and Mayhew claims themselves to be artists and understanding of the struggles and glories of the everyday people, it is satisfying to watch how little they actually understand these concepts.

With the paper thin walls of the hotel, it is perhaps not surprising for characters like Charlie to be enraged by their feigned sincerity, and for their abrupt and forced intrusion into their lives. Ultimately it is not this understanding that sells in the box office, but a much simpler method that could be achieved only by everyday people.

What Barton Fink experienced was not a writer's block, but the inability to construct a simple story which his complex mind could not conjure. A beautiful premise behind a gorgeous film, but the film overall is really hard to fully apprehend as I am still left puzzled by several motifs and symbols.