The Movie: Barton Fink (1991)
What Is It?: The
Coen Brothers struggle with writer’s block while composing Miller’s Crossing and create what may be their masterpiece. The
humor, surrealism, and absurdity are all as out there as they’d ever be in a
Coens film, but the balance and tone was never more perfect. John Turturro is
great as a playwright gradually selling his integrity in Hollywood. So are John
Goodman as his obnoxious neighbor, John Mahoney as a Faulkner stand in, and
Judy Davis as the one character who brings a sense of real realism to this
cartoonish nightmare.
Why Today?: Barton Fink was filmed at the Park Plaza
Hotel on 607 South Park View Street in NYC, and today is 6/07.