It’s hard to not cover Barfly without delving into this adaptation almost 20 years later, and in this case actually taking the name of Charles Bukowski’s 2nd book ‘Factotum’. Kind of an alternate reality version of the same story, with some the same, some slightly different details and, uh, levels of acting.
Henry Chinaski. He likes to drink. Writes his observances of the world. Works a ‘real’ job when life necessitates (aka pay rent). But he has other priorities, mainly involving a glass and the booze that’s in it. But he doesn’t stop writing. Or keeping out of trouble. This is kind of a vignette of his life’s realities, all pretty much self-inflicted. Amusing, sad and commendable at the same time.
Hate to say it, but this is just a ghost of what Barfly achieved. There’s some okay glimpses of Bukowski’s work that shines through. Not saying Mickey Rourke is the best of actors, but he Became the character of Chinaski. Here? Dillon does an alright job ACTING like the character. There’s a big difference. Bit of a role by Marisa Tomei that isn’t awful, and Lily Taylor holds her own as a hopeless drunk. The overuse of voiceover both helps and hinders here, too. One thing’s for sure, you know sure as shit that Bukowski heard the words “You’re fired” a lot. Like, high end of the scale number of times. But fuckit. He lived life on his own terms, no matter the consequences. This is a meandering lens that does capture that well, with at a few of the warts involved. And crabs.
If you haven’t watched Barfly, I guess this would be an ok kind of vérité type of film. I saw this awhile back and thought it was decent. But after watching again so closely after the Frank Stallone-starring opus, yeah, this one is paler in comparison.
