A few days ago I saw this movie being compared with Eraserhead and especially with The Shining. I have never heard of this movie before but I quickly realized this was a good film from the 90s that was well worth the watch. Due to the comparison with the other 2 movies, I was already expecting it to be dark and cryptic or confusing.
This was indeed the case. The story is about a guy who had some success working in the theaters in Broadway. This recognition allowed him the opportunity to start working as a scriptwriter in Hollywood for future films, which was clearly an advancement in his career and a positive step in his goals of producing entertainment of the highest quality.
He establishes himself in the room of a hotel, and right from the beginning, we can start to sense this hotel is not a normal place. The movie shows this very subtly but consistently. He is all alone in this new city so he doesn't socialize much and spends the majority of his time trying to write the script in his room. Soon enough, he meets his next-door neighbor, who is another hotel resident that's quite chatty and always with a happy face and attitude. This neighbor will be a key character in the plot.
It becomes hard to distinguish between what is real and what is imaginary or the product of some type of mental degeneration from the main character. Having in mind Barton Fink is a very imaginative and creative person, that he is under stress because he needs to complete the script while suffering from writer's block, and that he is very alone in a new city, it wouldn't be surprising for his mind to be cracking a little bit. Resulting in some type of mix between fantasy and reality, not in a surreal or dreamy way but in a strange way that almost feels real but with a constant "off" feeling.
Perhaps he already had these issues even before arriving at the hotel because there were also strange things from the very moment he arrived. There are a lot of ways to interpret the meaning of this film, it can certainly encourage discussions among the viewers and will leave most people trying to figure out what they just saw.
If you enjoy puzzling movies with a touch of craziness you should definitely check this one out. Have in mind this isn't a horror/suspense movie like the Shining but there is indeed some similarity between the main characters of both stories. The movie isn't explosive either, and with craziness, I really meant weirdness although there is one scene that can fairly be considered as explosive.
The best
- Very entertaining flick with good performances from fun characters.
The worst
- It is hard to understand what actually happened during the movie.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101410/ Review: AAA In numbers: 7.5/10