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Barton Fink

Barton Fink is an idealistic writer of the proletariat who was a Broadway star but also a self-pitying playwright in the 1940s. He finds himself being lured by Jack Lipnick’s Capitol Pictures to create scripts. Fink decides to write a story about the common man instead. His first screenplay is a Wallace Beery movie and Fink suffers from severe writer’s block. Barton is now stuck in Hotel Earle’s rundown, seedy quarters. He has no access to his Underwood typewriter and realizes that he cannot meet his deadline unless he draws inspiration from Charlie Meadows (an insurance salesman) and Audrey Taylor, his secretary. The grip of artistic bankruptcy continues to grip Barton. Is self-destructive Barton Fink able to face Hollywood’s harsh reality? –Nick Riganas