Barton Fink

(Joel Coen, US 1991, 116 min., 35mm)

Movies in the Movies. Written during a three-week break from Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink was anything but a flash in the pan. A genre-bender that nearly swept the 1991 Cannes Film Festival (winning the Palme D’Or, Best Director, and Best Actor), Barton Fink has endured as one of the Coen brothers’ finest artistic achievements. Migrating from Broadway to Hollywood, writer Barton Fink sets up shop in the cavernous Hotel Earle, descending into a paranoid, claustrophobic, art deco–styled nightmare. As always, the brothers elicit stellar work from their actors, with Coen favorites John Turturro and John Goodman turning in career-defining roles.

Also showing: Tuesday, April 30