FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Barton Fink (1991, UK, USA)

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner
Running Time: 116 mins.

When the Coen Brothers hit writer’s block while working on Miller’s Crossing, they took a break and wrote Barton Fink: a story about a playwright who suffers from writer’s block. After finishing Miller’s Crossing, they moved on to this film, starring two Johns: John Turturro as the titular character and John Goodman as his hotel neighbour. Barton Fink has success with Bare Ruined Choirs, a play about the common man. He’s offered 2,000 dollars a week to work in Hollywood, and with that decision he sells his soul to the devil. He’s assigned to write a wrestling picture, but isolated in his hotel room, he can’t get a single word out of his typewriter. Turturro is terrific as the pompous Fink, who pretends to be a champion of the common man yet fails to listen to one when he finally meets one in the flesh: his next-door neighbour, Charlie Meadows. The film quickly develops an eerie, almost horror-like mood, while still delivering plenty of classic Coen Brothers humour. Barton’s haircut is so high it almost fills half the screen, the studio head (a scene-stealing, Oscar-nominated performance by Michael Lerner) literally kisses Barton’s feet, and Barton is forced to watch dailies of the most terrible wrestling movie ever made. The story unfolds like a nightmare in which Barton gets trapped in his hotel room and inside his own mind, which he doesn’t understand. The film famously won the Palme d’Or, Best Director, and Best Actor at Cannes 1991, the first film ever to sweep the top three prizes, a feat that sparked controversy at the time.