Reviews

*Sigh* so after watching the Fargo Series hub and I wanted to do a Coen Brothers retrospective starting from the beginning with Blood Simple and working our way through the present.

Here we are at Barton Fink.

Listen to the other reviewers that call it plotless, overrated, unsatisfying, tedious, and boring even as they recognize that there might be art or "meaningfulness" buried somewhere deep within this film that moves at the pace of molasses. Or rather at the pace of wallpaper lazily melting off the walls in Los Angeles humidity.

I recognize what they're trying to do with the whole motel hell, the limbo of writers block, the mosquito, the unsung, abused female ghostwriter behind a great artist, the picture on the wall, the box, etc. But these elements end up just being that, elements. They don't cohere into anything meaningfully substantive, at least not for any significant period of time. There are all sorts of annoying loose ends in the film, like the whole Audrey storyline. What happened to her feels senselessly misogynistic. The most satisfying part was the hotel scene where John Goodman's character's bursts into the hotel like the Devil, but even that had an ambiguous and confusing resolution.

Overall just unsatisfying.

I think the title gives this away. It's called Sweetheart but upon watching the film it becomes quickly apparent that there is neither rhyme nor reason for this title. It's like they couldn't figure out what to call Netflix Script No 12308340 and slapped it on here because the lead character gets called this. Once.

I give this 3 stars instead of 1 because if you watch it bad movie night style--rude jokes, cracking wise, and a well-timed overdub of yakety sax--the film is hilarious, especially since it takes itself so seriously.

This movie's "plot" is something you'd expect the winner of an 8th grade writing competition to produce. It would be an impressive accomplishment for the 8th grader, but as the script for a film? My god. I mean, were they rushed for time or something? This was a draft, not the final product. The premise is not believable at all--a girl 'ends up' stranded on a deserted Island and we don't find out why until we're about three-quarters of the way in. The decision not to have any dialogue for most of the film was a mistake, since it stretched the lead actress beyond her skills. She's not a bad actress, it's just that 'acting' sans speaking is really hard and better left to more mature, seasoned actors or unusually skilled young actors. She deserved and would have benefited from a stronger script. Anyway, a monster gets introduced eventually and one of the few things they did well in the film was only showing us a peek here and there about it, which was effective until they went and showed us and blew it. The idea for the monster or monsters (it's unclear if there is more than one) was a good one, but poorly executed. This monster deserved better as well.

What little dialogue that did exist was asinine in both content or delivery.

I feel like this wanted to be the teenage horror version of Castaway, but it fails to do so. Miserably.