Review of Barton Fink (1991) by Christopher L — 22 May 2009

I'm always amazed by the versatility of the Coen Brothers. They make so many different kinds of movies, from the Hitchcock-esque "Blood Simple" to the dark "Miller's Crossing" to the fairy-tale "Hudsucker Proxy" to the ridiculously hilarious "Big Lebowski." All of them have comedy, drama tension, and terror. "Barton Fink" is a half a parody of the artsy indy head-drama, and half a better artsy indy head-drama than the real ones. John Turturro is excellent as always, as the independent New York theater writer of high ideals-- too much an intellectual to see, respect, or understand the "common man" he's so concerned with capturing in his work. John Goodman is great as the old high school wrestler, turned traveling salesman, turned psychotic serial killer, turned demon(?) when the film descends into total nightmare.

As always, even the minor performances are outstanding, but this is one of my favorite of John Mahoney's films, where he plays W.P. Mayhew, the consistently drunk highly acclaimed writer, and Tony Shaloub as the bastard Hollywood Reporter.