Barton Fink (1991)

The title character of "Barton Fink" -- a twisted "comedy" from brilliant brothers Joel and Ethan Coen -- finds himself in hell, but disguised as World War II-era Hollywood. Fink (John Turturro) is a World War II-era New York playwright on the cusp of a single hit and is whisked away to Hollywood to work in "pictures."

If anyone has any doubts about the distaste that the Coens have for Hollywood big shots and big money, this is the answer. They hate the place. Fink is hired to write a script for a wrestling movie, and is quickly told that the plot, characters and tone is irrelevant, as long as he includes a dame or an orphan. People love dames and they love orphans, he's told. When Fink suggests why not both, he's given a stare of death by his new boss (the hilarious Michael Lerner). If Fink's job seems hellish, his hotel truly is a pit of fire and sulfur. The hotel clerk (Steve Buscemi) is a twig of a man, who appears covered in dust. Every inch of the hotel also appears covered in grime, untouched since the turn of the century. Even the sick green wallpaper is peeling off the walls. Then there's his neighbor, an insurance salesman (John Goodman) who won't stop talking. Not that it matters. The Coens aren't easy on their lonely writer, either. He claims to write for and about the common man, like Goodman, but he really only cares about himself.

A baffling twist comes midway through this comedy, one that could only work in a Coen Brothers film. Or Hitchcock. From there this seemingly broad, neat Hollywood satire (and hotel comedy spoof) turns dark and hot. And I do mean hot, as the hotel becomes an inferno. And unlike badly done CGI films, the flames here appear (are?) real -- the actors swelter and turn red in the blistering, flaming heat. This is a genius film: you don't see the end coming, but when it does it's sadly ironic, and every line bleeds quotable classic. (One complaint: "What's in the box!?!")

The Coens have never made a truly awful film, but their misfires -- "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Intolerable Cruelty" and "The LadyKillers" -- all skated in line with big-studio Hollywood fare. Or close to it. The winners, be they comedy or not -- "Fargo," "Miller's Crossing," "Blood Simple" and the new classic "No Country For Old Men" -- fell far outside the Blockbuster route. I'm probably grasping at straws to say that Fink represents a Ethan/Joel mash up if the brothers ever turned Hollywood hack or New York sap, but they still have their soul. Thank goodness. A