MOVIE · 1991

Barton Fink

ComedyDramaThriller117 min

John Turturro is Barton Fink, a celebrated New York playwright lured to 1941 Hollywood to write for the movies, only to stall out on a low-budget wrestling picture. Holed up in the shabby Hotel Earle, Barton wrestles with writer’s block, studio pressure, and the constant interruptions of his friendly next-door neighbor, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman). As the deadline closes in, the hotel’s peeling walls, the oppressive heat, and Charlie’s increasingly unsettling presence turn Barton’s creative crisis into something far more unstable. From the Coen brothers, the film threads Hollywood satire through claustrophobic mystery and off-center comedy.