Anna Neon"Chinaski, you're fired."
January 11th 2007 01:42
Factotum
Comedy/ Drama/ Depressant
Based on Charles Bukowski’s book of the same name, Factotum is the story of Bukowski’s alter-ego, the alcoholic, gambler Henry (Hank) Chinaski and his low life adventures on the streets of LA. Hank bounces from menial job to menial job while trying to support himself as a writer, which seems to be his true…nay, only passion in life.
Along the way he meets Jan (Lily Taylor), whose slacker attitude and zealous sexual appetite matches his own. They have a brief affair and after leaving Jan, within days Hank has already moved on to young wannabe socialite Laura (Marisa Tomei), but soon tires of her also. Chinaski actually admits to needing success over love and this film is about writing, women, booze and the struggle to achieve said success.
This film is more of a tribute to the character of Hank Chinaski, rather than Bukowski himself but there are obvious similarities between the two and Matt Dillon does a superb job as the ever disdainful yet lovable, Chinaski.
Bukowski has an amazing ability to observe truths in life and crystallize them in both his stories and his verse. At times depressing, Bukowski’s work always rings true and director; Bent Hamer really gives us an excursion into the gritty world of Bukowski’s working class America and the burning discontentment of the struggling artist. Despite, the low life nature of the subject and the subject matter teamed with the slow moving plot, this film demands your full attention and the characters are rich and interesting.
Very few people know that Bukowski was a brilliant mathematician and the film features a small homage to this little known fact, among others. If you’re a Bukowski fan, there’s no doubt you’ll love it. If not, you may find it slow and the character of Chinaski difficult to warm to, to say the least. But the cast is stellar and the adaptation clever. It’s worth a look.
Comedy/ Drama/ Depressant
Based on Charles Bukowski’s book of the same name, Factotum is the story of Bukowski’s alter-ego, the alcoholic, gambler Henry (Hank) Chinaski and his low life adventures on the streets of LA. Hank bounces from menial job to menial job while trying to support himself as a writer, which seems to be his true…nay, only passion in life.
Along the way he meets Jan (Lily Taylor), whose slacker attitude and zealous sexual appetite matches his own. They have a brief affair and after leaving Jan, within days Hank has already moved on to young wannabe socialite Laura (Marisa Tomei), but soon tires of her also. Chinaski actually admits to needing success over love and this film is about writing, women, booze and the struggle to achieve said success.
This film is more of a tribute to the character of Hank Chinaski, rather than Bukowski himself but there are obvious similarities between the two and Matt Dillon does a superb job as the ever disdainful yet lovable, Chinaski.
Bukowski has an amazing ability to observe truths in life and crystallize them in both his stories and his verse. At times depressing, Bukowski’s work always rings true and director; Bent Hamer really gives us an excursion into the gritty world of Bukowski’s working class America and the burning discontentment of the struggling artist. Despite, the low life nature of the subject and the subject matter teamed with the slow moving plot, this film demands your full attention and the characters are rich and interesting.
Very few people know that Bukowski was a brilliant mathematician and the film features a small homage to this little known fact, among others. If you’re a Bukowski fan, there’s no doubt you’ll love it. If not, you may find it slow and the character of Chinaski difficult to warm to, to say the least. But the cast is stellar and the adaptation clever. It’s worth a look.
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