| Cannon Group, The | Release Date: October 16, 1987 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
11
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Barfly is a perfectly incorrigible comedy, a movie of unusual shape and unpredictable moves. [25 Nov 1987, p.D9]
Though it's set within the world of the seriously down-and-out in Los Angeles and is about people who are at the end of their ropes, Barfly somehow manages to be gallant and even cheerful. It has an admirably lean, unsentimental screenplay by Charles Bukowski, the poet laureate of America's misbegotten.
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To have a great time with Barfly's funny funkiness, you don't have to share Bukowski's soused attitude toward alcoholism, however; Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, whose wonderful performances transcend Bukowski's conceit, certainly don't. [13 Nov 1987]
O'Rourke acts way over the top; Dunaway is more effective because she seems more desperate. Both characters are the kind of people who want to be left alone. That's what you may feel like after you spend a few minutes with them in one long brawl after one long argument after one long soliloquy.
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Schroder inadvertently exposes Bukowski's messianic windbag sensibility at its most self-satisfied. You wouldn't guess at Bukowski's talent from this movie.
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