Barton Fink (1991)

Maybe the Coen Brothers' best work, if not the most underrated — Barton Fink's symbolism is as subtle as it is brilliant. There are so many theories about what this movie represents (and all are worth digging into) including but not limited to: the Shakespearean angle (writer's block as an allegory for Macbeth’s tragic hubris), the Dante's Inferno angle (a tortured artist, a guide, and a surreal, agonizing journey through increasingly surreal circles of creative and emotional destruction), the Paradise Lost angle (high-minded artist sells his soul to Hollywood, resulting in creative and spiritual destruction), the WWII angle (that the film represents the rise of Nazism in the 30s and the ineffectiveness of liberal intellectuals) and many others.

From our, perhaps surface level perspective, this is really just a biographical film from the brothers — satirizing the fact they've created a Jewish, independent writer who moves from NYC to LA and faces setback after embarrassing setback from everyone he meets along with the Hollywood studios he's working for.

It's a beautiful and haunting look into the tortured artist, what it means to be a creative and do creative work, what it is to engage with a psychological block and what it means to balance sustaining yourself creativity with sustaining yourself spiritually with sustaining yourself financially. Themes that are constantly coming up for us and those we work closely with.