giallopudding

If you are in any way creative, and had youthful expectations that you could exercise your talent in the business world, you'll be able to relate to Barton Fink. There's no room for artists in the film industry, and movie making is a craft at best.

The Coen's are experts at recognizing the absurdity in any situation, and they were uniquely positioned to exploit it in their own industry. Barton Fink is about the creator's dilemma - how to create something that is clever and original enough to win accolades from the critics who matter, and mundane enough to be marketable to the masses, along with overpriced popcorn and soda.

Barton Fink is an insufferable, elitist snob, it's true. As are most artists worth their weight in metaphors. Unfortunately, after successfully writing for theater, when he leaves the safe haven of NYC (a town that coddles artists) for seedy, scintillating Hollywood, he has no idea what's in store. As with the thousands before him, Fink is seduced by the big lights and big money. What he finds instead is the darkest part of his soul, stranded in a soulless city of smiling hucksters in expensive suits.

I think Barton Fink is one of the funniest films ever made. It is a fish out of water story that will appeal to anyone in the arts, and especially those interested in learning how the sausage is made in La-La Land.

As a child of the 60s, and a fan of Jerry Seinfeld comedy, I found Unfrosted irresistibly delicious! And what a cast. The last time this much comic talent appeared in one crazy movie, Jonathan Winters was tearing down a filling station. I plan to rewatch soon, because the jokes come quickly and often. The many allusions to products and events from the 60s put the viewer on a nostalgia trip like no other. Boomers buckle up. And you don't even have to have eaten sugar coated sugar flakes or pectin-filled dough squares called Pop Tarts to savor the flavor of a time in our history when our existential anxieties about nuclear war could be alleviated by fruit-like filling, toasted to mouth scorching temperatures. What a treat. Jerry's love letter to better days is a winner with this boomer.

Am I alone in seeing this film as an indictment of our meme-happy culture? There's even a line in Dream Scenario that encapsulates the core theme: "All memes will become dreams."

Never underestimate the power of a meme to evoke the full spectrum of human emotions - from laughter to terror to sexual titillation. Nicholas Cage as Paul Matthews becomes the world's most famous walking, talking meme - a social media post made manifest, and violently thrown to the mercy of mob.

Matthews could be seen as a metaphor - a mirror into the dark recesses of peoples' souls, dredging up what are for the most part the blackest Jungian archetypes residing in the caverns of our reptilian brains. Cage's character becomes a dowdy, dorky Freddy Krueger, ready to serve as the least likely universal Boogie Man imaginable!

Fortunately for us in the real world, viewing memes rarely leads to psychic meltdowns; most are innocuous attempts at wit and tongue-in-cheek news reporting; and many bring us vitally needed humor to keep the nerd demon depicted in Dream Scenario at bay.

Bottom line: this film will appeal to those who find humor in some gore and cringe, and who are confident enough in their own sanity to be immune to the banal demonic charm of Nicholas Cage's meme man.