Guilty Pleasure Drama — Barton Fink





I continue my look at guilty pleasure movies this summer with a quirky dramedy.

Barton Fink (1991)
Starring: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, John Mahony, and Jon Polito
About: When you talk about the Coen Brothers, there are a lot of great films that come to mind. People tend to focus on the early films — "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona," "The Big Lebowski," or "Fargo" — or their later classics — "O Brother Where Art Thou" and "No Country For Old Men." But for me, I think their golden era was right in between "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo." I appreciate "Fargo" and I love "No Country For Old Men," but the early 1990s trio of "Miller's Crossing," "Barton Fink," and "The Hudsucker Proxy" are incredible, and showcase the great talent of the brothers. For this list, I have only allowed one film from any filmmaker (otherwise this would be Michael Bay's list), so for the Coen Brothers I went with "Barton Fink." Some might label it a comedy, and it is kind of a black comedy, but I put it in the drama category. It's eccentric, but I don't think it's entirely meant to be funny. This was the Coen Brothers third major release, but the fourth they started. You see, they got writer's block during "Miller's Crossing," so they turned to writing a film about a writer with writer's block, and "Barton Fink" was born. It has some great performances and great writing. It has some incredible images and it's wildly original. It's also quite strange. That latter part is probably why it isn't more popular or well known. It's not an easy or light film to sit through, but it's worth the effort. This is a hidden Coen Brothers gem.
 Rating:  R for language and some scenes of violence

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