Bukowski's "Factotum" -- the movie

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It's barely been released or promoted, but I saw it last night and liked it a lot. Very faithful to the tone of early Bukowski -- Matt Dillon (yeah, I know) plays Chinaski as beaten down and often pathetic, not at all the romanticized barstool poet Barfly thing.

Lili Taylor was, predictably, perfect. Marisa Tomei's part was small, but she was well-cast too.

And it was filmed in Minneapolis, which was funny.

Overall, very nicely understated. Though I was kinda drunk.

Anyway, I'm probably the only person on ilx who's seen it, but if you live in one of the three or four cities it's showing in, it might be worth it.

― alex.p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 15 September 2006 01:57 (twenty years ago)

it was directed by Brent Hamer, who's Norwegian, and whose movie Kitchen Stories I saw at some film fest years ago and liked, though it was decidedly "quirky."

― p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:00 (twenty years ago)

not at all the romanticized barstool poet Barfly thing.

When that came out, I had never heard that word before and I wondered why someone had released a movie with a title pronounced barf-ly.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:01 (twenty years ago)

it's playing here, but i keep forgetting to go see it.

― ruddy raleigh and the rickets (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:05 (twenty years ago)

this is one of my favorite novels but i dont think the movie will play in arkansas.

is it bad that im naming my child after henry chinaski? NO

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:40 (twenty years ago)

my favourite bukowski movi: CRAZY LOVE.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:54 (twenty years ago)

I liked Tales of Ordinary Madness a lot the one time I saw it. Ben Gazzara is a great Buk.

― Why does my IQ changes? (noodle vague), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Is Crazy Love actually good? I only just head of it a little while ago and I'm fascinated.

― p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:26 (twenty years ago)

I saw this at the back end of last year in Glasgow, late November/early December-time. I thought it was a reasonable way to pass a couple of hours. Understated, as you said. I was also mildly drunk when I saw it. I thought Matt Dillon was excellent.

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:58 (twenty years ago)

I've got it on video. The only thing I don't like about it is the contemporary setting; I imagined it'd be set in the Fifties or something. The scene at the beginning where a modern VW bug drives past jars with me every time. Otherwise I thought it was pretty good.

― angle of d... (tingo), Friday, 15 September 2006 14:01 (twenty years ago)

yeah, it would've been both prohibitively expensive (i remember when they were filming, was friends w/ a crew member, and they had a budget of like 30 bucks) and probably not really worth it to Fifties it up. the twin cities still have a couple bars that look straight out of chinaski's mid-century LA, and i don't think vintage cars would've added too much to the ambiance.

i kinda liked that the time period and location were left completely vague, though an Altman Long Goodbye waking-up-in-the-present thing might've been an interesting (tho probably pointless) way to approach it.

― p@reene (Pareene), Friday, 15 September 2006 14:08 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

watching this now.

It's like a parody of Serious Writer Movies with flashes of insight.

― BIG HOOS is those british white steens (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 28 November 2008 09:06 (seventeen years ago)

will probably end up next to adaptation on my shelf

― BIG HOOS is those british white steens (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 28 November 2008 09:06 (seventeen years ago)

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