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Barton Fink
20th Century Fox Film Corporation


9.2

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R

Starring John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Tony Shalhoub, Jon Polito, and Steve Buscemi

The Coen brothers' apocalyptic masterpiece about the creative process.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Ethan Coen Joel Coen
DIRECTED BY:	Joel Coen
RELEASE DATE:	Video: August 18, 1993 Theatrical: August 21, 1991
RUNNING TIME:	116 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Newsweek David Ansen

Creepily beautiful, acted with relish, Barton Fink is a savagely original work. It lodges in your head like a hatchet. [26 Aug 1991]

100

Washington Post Rita Kempley

What "Raising Arizona" was to baby lust, "Barton Fink" is to writer's block -- a rapturously funny, strangely bittersweet, moderately horrifying and, yes, truly apt description of the condition and its symptoms.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Stimulating 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.

100

The New York Times Vincent Canby

An unqualified winner. Here is a fine dark comedy of flamboyant style and immense though seemingly effortless techniqe...It's an exhilarating original. [21 Aug 1991]

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Scene after scene is filled with a ferocious strength and humor. Michael Lerner's performance as a Mayer-like studio overlord is sensational.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A black comedy in the tradition of David Lynch, Luis Bunuel and the Coens themselves...an assured piece of comic filmmaking.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

This hip morality tale is by no means perfect - it's not the masterpiece "Miller's Crossing" was - but it is stylish, intelligent, witty and more than slightly creepy.

USA Today Mike Clark

Though less than the sum of its brilliant parts, the Coens' latest will still be must viewing in 32 years. [21 Aug 1991]

Empire Angie Errigo

The 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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Very competently mounted and acted (there are also juicy parts for Judy Davis, Tony Shalhoub, and Jon Polito), this is basically a midnight-movie gross-out in Sunday-afternoon art-house clothing--an intriguing novelty that revels in effect while oozing with cryptic signifiers.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

For once, the Coen brothers' neurotic filmmaking style works to their advantage; it's giddily appropriate for a movie about a man who's losing his mind.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Barton Fink has an atmosphere of languid comic anxiety (it's like a cross between "Eraserhead" and "Angel Heart"), and it's fun to watch, if only because you have no idea what's coming next.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Ultimately, however, the look, sound and feel of this macabre comedy fail to support any coherent theme...Much is denigrated, but little affirmed.

Time Richard Schickel

[The Coens] are therefore entitled to patience, respect and, yes, perhaps a special gratitude for this movie, which never once compromises its fundamentally unpromising yet courageously aspiring nature. [26 Aug 1991]

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

But even as the film's weaknesses make themselves more and more apparent, so does Mr. Turturro's virtuosity. [15 Aug 1991, p.A10(E)]

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Exhilarating 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]

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Like the mysterious, bound package Goodman gives Turturro (the contents are never revealed), the Coens isolate a small area of interest, bind it with psycho-atmospheric finesse, then wait for something significant to emerge. Even after a second viewing of this movie, it doesn't.

The New Yorker Terrence Rafferty

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.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Billed as a comedy, but it could also be billed as a drama, a satire, an allegory, or a film (partially) noir. It wouldn't matter, or help... Not since Robert Altman has any American filmmaker been as overrated as this pair. [30 Sept 1991]

The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mike G gave it a10:
Barton Fink is arguably the Coen Brothers masterpiece. Not a single scene is wasted, and that includes the washed out backgrounds, the costumes worn by the characters, and every single bit of juicy dialogue. In a movie filled with awesome supporting performances by John Goodman, Judy Davis, a scene-stealing Michael Lerner and even Tony Shalhoub, John Turturro is the glue that holds this film together. Some actors fail in Coen Brothers movies because they seem too much like spectators...not in their skin and almost watching the movie with the rest of us. Turturro is perfect - an inhabitant of the insane world he's in but also an interloper at the same time. As mentioned above, the dialogue is all wonderful, crisp, sharp, funny, and meaningful all at once. Watch this movie twice if you don't quite get it the first time...the pay-off is simply incredible.

Benny D gave it a 10:
The blackest of black comedies and maybe the ultimate Coen brothers flick. Last time I saw "Fargo" I wasn't that impressed, but this movie is amazing. And, of course, it's not for everyone. If you're not laughing you'll probably walk out of the theater, and if you're laughing you're sick. But this movie has the courage to laugh in the face of Death, embodied by somebody who could be Satan or Hitler himself, and if you wanna know what I mean you need to rent "Barton Fink" immediately.

george s. gave it a 9:
The sounddesign of this movie is absolutely fabulous. You guys seem to look primarily at the way the story is told, but for this movie, attention should go to the sound. The way the sound is engineerd, very selective and using a lot of silence, is the basis of the good image they give of the writers block. It also adds a lot to the symbols in the movie... hotel hell!

Cari S. gave it a 10:
Even if one doesn't like this film for the story, one must admit it is a masterpiece technically. The acting is superior, the directing and cinematography fit the mood and storyline like a glove. Everything in this movie makes sense (well..kind of). However, the best part of the film is that one must meet the Coen Bros. halfway. One can't just sit back and watch the story unfold...one has to analyze and actually THINK about the events and words that are being said. This movie is "simply marvelous," and definitely NOT "for the common man."

Pat C. gave it a 4:
A story about writer's block. I suspect it was also about how the script was written. Intriguing clear through, but a big so-what at the end.

Yoon C. gave it an 8:
A dark tale of ambition, self-doubt, and self-deception, it suffers from the Coen Brother's signature self-mocking cleverness that undermines the truly disturbing nature of the movie. But beyond the Coen Brothers usual bag of mannerist tricks, the film gradually climaxes and edges over into a fascinating, subdued realm of psychic horror.

Simon D. gave it a 10:
An unjustly forgotten classic from the Coen Brothers, this film remains their surreal masterpeice ahead of later, more popular work. I never understood why this failed to find audience.

Barton Fink 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Barton Fink
20th Century Fox Film Corporation