Predrag
Barfly was written directly for the screen by one of my all-time favorite authors, Charles Bukowski. Mickey Rourke has never given a finer performance than as Henry, a "Bukowski-esque" writer/barfly struggling to survive along with the other dregs of society. Faye Dunaway shines as Wanda, Henry's newly found, (sometimes lover) drinking partner. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, Barfly did not find a large audience but critics and the lucky few to see this film in the theater became instant fans, knowing they have just viewed a small masterpiece.However the real thrill is Dunaway appearing at a time when her Hollywood star was suffering still from "Mommie Dearest". I find her performance here probably one of her best and she captures beautifully the louche attitude of a beautiful woman too attracted to the bottle and heading for oblivion. This film is certainly up there with Bonnie & Clyde, Chinatown and Network in showing what she was capable of when well directed and stretched.Also special mention should be made of the two support actors J. C. Quinn as Chinaski's friend and Alice Krige as the wealthy and attractive publisher attracted to the doomed Chinaski and not realising she is out of her depth when confronted by Dunaway. Add to this a very memorable cast of cheap bar low-lifes who all feed off each other and some smart art direction and camera-work. The several shots of daylight streaming into those dark room long bars when the bar door is opened and the inhabitants react dazedly captures the milieu of their twilight existence perfectly, and the bitter sweet ending of having gone full circle in the story depicts the entrapment of such an existence beautifully.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
Uriah43
"Henry Chinaski" (Mickey Rourke) is a drunken bum who is a regular customer of a nightclub in Los Angeles called "The Golden Horn". He disdains one of the bartenders named "Eddie" (Frank Stallone) which results in frequent fistfights which Henry typically loses. One night, however, he manages to beat up Eddie and because of it he is ejected from the bar. Needing a new place to satisfy his alcoholism he wanders into another nightclub where he meets "Wanda Wilcox" (Faye Dunaway) who is just as alcoholic as he is. Naturally, they hit it off right away. When she tells him she dislikes people in general, he responds by saying that he doesn't dislike them so much as he simply feels better when they're not around. Anyway, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will just say this isn't just a film about barroom brawls and drinking. Instead there are some philosophical points made in the midst of the squalor that even "Tully Sorenson" (Alice Krige) may not quite understand. At any rate, while I'm not a huge fan of either Mickey Rourke or Faye Dunaway, I have to admit that they both put on a good performance in this film. Above average.
ElMaruecan82
"Barfly" is not a comedy in the unoriginal meaning of the word; this one really takes you by surprise and writes your laughs in bold and capital letters. Experiencing "Barfly" is like finding a jewel in a trash can or meeting Scarlett Johansen alone in a cheap motel room...Mickey Rourke, portrays Henry Chinaski, a barfly buzzing around from a waterhole A to a waterhole B. For the bartenders, among them Eddy, the one he fights every night, Henry is a real pain in the ass, how ironic that he also walks as if he had one. And with his Brando-like eyes, Henry seems to look at both nowhere and everywhere, ignoring but understanding the real world with "real" as the derogatory synonym of obviousness, dullness, hypocrisy ... and when he meets Faye Dunaway (no wire hangers this time, but some priceless hangovers I guarantee) it's the perfect cocktail of cynical poetry and endearing trashiness served to you, on the rocks. Still this is the only alcoholic experience that doesn't leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth, for the film is so wasted you wish you could have wasted more time watching it.The movie is written by Charles Bukowski, one of the most original authors of the last century, a man who gave to the trashiest and lowest life of American streets the letters of an inner nobility that no one could see, except the unfortunate (or were they?) misfits who belonged to that gripping underworld. I wish I could have said that from my readings of some Bukowski's poems or novels, but it's been my whole life since I just knew about this man, and if one thing, "Barfly" is my first immersion in the world of this poet who stinks the sweet perfume of truth and not the one that awakens some repressed suicidal tendencies through a solemn voice over. In "Barfly", truth is delivered through Henry's nasal voice with a musicality singing that life is too serious to be taken seriously … and the genius of the script is how unpretentiously but seriously hilarious it is.You literally savor the script like a sweet, red and juicy appetizer, starting with the most significant quote, the film's tag-line: "Some people never go crazy … what truly horrible lives they must live!" Henry is not right because it's naturally better to be crazy, his sentence exceeds his own personal comprehension of craziness, the point is not to be crazy like Henry, but the way we'd love to be every once in a while. The taste of life differs from one person to another. Henry's nonsense speaks true statements about human nature with the same lucidity that governs our hearts when we've just taken one drop too much. Realization is the first step in the road for wisdom while most of us resist to the blinding flash of realization, Henry can't think of what he wants to be, because he's already too tired of thinking of what he doesn't want to be. Henry subtly mirrors our condition as people who not only know but actually ARE what they don't want to be.Henry can do nothing but drink, sleep, fight and write... still, he's not a loser, hell, how can you be a loser if you've got nothing to lose? The rest of his life consists on a bunch of "can't" but aware, he is, and care, he doesn't; while our masochistic registration to a mediocre formula of life deprived us from the same kind of free-spirited awareness. We try to forget our condition by reassuring ourselves with an ersatz of normality, just to be accepted by the boring majority. "Anyone can get a job. It takes a man to make it without working." Henry's eternal drunkenness injected in his brains an extraordinary view on life so insightful and pertinent, he's the kind of modern prophet you'd constantly wonder what he'd think about anything. And one thing for sure, you'd trade the three quarters of your Facebook friends for one night where you could cheer with Henry, while he raises his glass of scotch and shouts "To my friends!" And that's the true spirit of "Barfly", it doesn't trash your life and talks to you in a patronizing way, it doesn't tease your brains, again: it doesn't take itself seriously. That's what cruelly lacks in today's films, I'd rather watch a movie where a bunch of true losers are having a good time than a bunch of dangerous losers creating a sort of fascist 'fighting' group to show the world they exist. What's so important in today's world anyway to seek the pride of being part of something, of belonging, networking, socializing? Why the need to collect friends and masturbating over an artificial popularity when all you can have are ephemeral but sincere moments of fun with authentic human beings."Barfly" doesn't take itself seriously but doesn't lie either, the ways of truth are impenetrable and often choose the least likely avenues. And "Barfly" works like a reverse fantasy attracting us to the bottom, finding the inner beauty of life in the freedom of action, of spirit and more than anything, belonging to nothing but a true community of ephemeral friends for ephemeral pleasures. No class, no social category, no people, no bourgeois, being an outcast, and even a disgrace, is a luxury providing the most honest vision on the world, not diluted by personal or political bias. You can't be an artist if you're not an outcast and on that level, Chinasky is more than an artist, he's a genuine genius … So, if only for Rourke's spectacular performance, for the witty script, for the so enjoyably cheerful mood and its gallery of colorful and likable characters, not to mention the beautiful shots on Dunaway's sexy legs … this movie deserves to be consumed without moderation. Cheers!
Michael Neumann
Love blossoms in the gutter when a shabby skid row derelict meets an alcoholic floozy in the bars of outer LA, but don't be dismayed by all the rampant sleaze: despite the vivid atmosphere of cheap booze and wasted lives this unique and unusual film represents a minor triumph of comic nonconformity. The script was written by low-life poet Charles Bukowski and is filled with all his favorite things: winos, hookers, losers, and a "wet rat in the rain", played to perfection by Mickey Roarke, who with his flabby posture and smooth beatnik whisper gives the character more humor and humanity than Bukowski may have intended. Give Roarke credit for choosing to appear in such an unflattering role, but this is no ordinary bum. He's a philosopher drunkard who listens to Mozart and Mahler when he isn't picking a fight or puking in an alley after one drink too many, a man whose total freedom from responsibility gives him the power to be completely spontaneous. Faye Dunaway isn't allowed the same depth of character, but together they help make this one of the few films for which the word skuzzy can aptly be used as a compliment.
