I got it from NetFlix and I swear I don’t remember renting it and putting it on the top of my queue.
But there you go...
Since it was about a writer with writer’s block, and I’m a writer (sort of), I might have thought this movie was about writer's block. LOL. I wanted to see a funny movie about writing...i.e., "funny haha". As it was, it was "funny strange".
Even so...
It was a bit more bizarre than I expected. I also expected a surprise ending that would make everything okay if not actually tie up the loose ends or even giving us a hint as to why it was so strange.
Sure enough, though, it WAS a shocking surprise. Shock #1: seeing it just end instead of drawing to a close. #2: noticing at the end that the Coen brothers wrote the script. That was a big surprise for me.
If you've ever seen a Coen brothers movie you know what I'm talking about. (Now that I think of it, #2 wasn't such a surprise at all. I should have guessed.)
I wish I'd known it was written by the Coen brothers before I fired up my DVD player.
But what do I know...
There are lots and lots of words posted on the internet about Barton Fink. I suspect if you took the time to read a bunch of them it would take you longer than actually watching the movie.
The crap written about all the symbology is about as enlightening as the symbology crap written about Mulholland Drive. Viewers with half a brain can actually find their own symbols. Forget about obscure literary and historical allusions because if you have to hunt for them, or have someone tell you about them, well, that's just not what watching movies should be about.
If you like weird and/or Coen brother's movies, you will like Barton Fink for sure.
The acting was very good. (And sort of like the clown show at the circus--you don't know whether to laugh or to be frightened.)
But seriously, if you read all the reviews and deconstructions about it, skip the movie. If you want to watch the movie, skip all the internet things written about it.
So...
That's that.
.JPG)