five-cent review #6
(reviews in five sentences or less)
Factotum (Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, 2006).
Dillon nails Bukowski alter-ego Hank Chinaski, down to the slow blinking, quiet carriage and tender way he holds his drink – the performance Mickey Rourke should have given in Barfly. Tough and sensitive Chinaski shuffles through menial jobs, darkened bars, flophouses and race tracks, all the while dropping his poems and short stories in the nearest mailbox. The authenticity of a life forged outside the mainstream is especially evident in the internal monologues (much of which come from the Bukowski novel of the same name). Choice bit, coolly rendered by Dillon: "Even at my lowest times I can feel the words bubbling inside me, and I have to get the words down or be overcome by something worse than death, words not as precious things, but as necessary things. Yet when I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and then I know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself - to do it right - with power and force and delight and gamble." Bukowski documentary Born Into This already queued up.
Factotum (Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, 2006).
Dillon nails Bukowski alter-ego Hank Chinaski, down to the slow blinking, quiet carriage and tender way he holds his drink – the performance Mickey Rourke should have given in Barfly. Tough and sensitive Chinaski shuffles through menial jobs, darkened bars, flophouses and race tracks, all the while dropping his poems and short stories in the nearest mailbox. The authenticity of a life forged outside the mainstream is especially evident in the internal monologues (much of which come from the Bukowski novel of the same name). Choice bit, coolly rendered by Dillon: "Even at my lowest times I can feel the words bubbling inside me, and I have to get the words down or be overcome by something worse than death, words not as precious things, but as necessary things. Yet when I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and then I know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself - to do it right - with power and force and delight and gamble." Bukowski documentary Born Into This already queued up.
posted by caleb d. at 5:47 AM
2 Comments:
You have GOT to kiding!
Have you SEEN "Barfly"?
Thanks for stopping by, M.R. Online. Sure, Mickey Rourke’s performance in Barfly was distinctive but it was wrong. Bukowski wrote the screenplay. It’s based on Bukowski’s life. Bukowski’s comments on Mickey Rourke’s portrayal: “exaggerated,” “a little bit show-off,” “untrue.” And “I don’t think the kid has ever been on Skid Row… it was just kind of misdone.” I thought Mickey Rourke was great in Sin City though.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home