Barfly by Charles Bukowsky - 8 out of 10

Barfly by Charles Bukowsky
8 out of 10


Barfly is surely a work of art.

For it is included on The New York Times' Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list.
Furthermore, it was nominated for for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987 and that makes it one of the best films of that period anyway.

Now, is it entertaining?
This is a hard question for this cinephile.

Because while the merits of the motion picture are evident, there are drawbacks.
Perhaps the most important is Mickey Rourke, who, admittedly does at least a decent job.

Alas, it is almost impossible to look at the actor as he was more than thirty years ago and ignore all that happened in the meantime.
It is for this viewer in any case.

If in the film Rourke plays the role of Henry, a creator based on famous Charles Bukowski, author of the screenplay, in the meantime, the actor has become the opposite of an artist.
Mickey Rourke seems to symbolize now the epitome of the red neck, not the subtle intellectual.

Thus, Barfly becomes a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron.
With hindsight, of course and being (absurdly?) subjective and prejudiced.

It is like having Trump play the role of Truman Capote or for that matter any other writer or thinker.

Otherwise, the film has a lot going for it, the protagonist is a talented drunkard, involved in frequent fights, stabbing accidentally a neighbor and caught at one point between two women.
One is Wanda Wilcox aka Faye Dunaway, nominated for a Golden Globe for this role, and the other is Tully aka Alice Krige.

Wanda drags Tully into a physical, rather vicious fight over the somewhat detached, almost always intoxicated Henry.

Barfly has been so acclaimed that it is maybe even inappropriate for this scribbler to go against the tide, but there it is:

I wasn't blown away.