- Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
- Release Date: Aug 21, 1991
- Starring: John Goodman, John Turturro
- Summary: The Coen brothers' apocalyptic masterpiece about the creative process.
- Director: Ethan Coen
- Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 19
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Mixed: 3 out of 19
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Negative: 2 out of 19
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100Stimulating entertainment, as rigorously challenging and painfully funny as anything the Coens have done. But it's necessary to meet the Coens halfway. If you don't, Barton Fink is an empty exercise that will bore you breathless. If you do, it's a comic nightmare that will stir your imagination like no film in years.
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80The allusions and illusions are just a treat until about two-thirds of the way in, when a genuinely shocking development takes the film off into psycho-horror that is almost as baffling as it is unsatisfying.
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60Exhilarating and frustrating at the same time... the Coens' skill is such that you're not averse to following them anywhere, but every once in a while you can't help wishing they weren't so dead set against throwing the rest of us at least a hint of what's on their minds. [21 Aug 1991]
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It feels thin. It's an empty tour de force, and what's dismaying about the picture is that the filmmakers... seem inordinately pleased with its hermetic meaninglessness.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 12
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Mixed: 1 out of 12
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Negative: 0 out of 12
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MikeG10
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