Barfly

1987

Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance

22
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 82% · 25 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 82% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 23335 23.3K

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Plot summary

Downtrodden writer Henry and distressed goddess Wanda aren't exactly husband and wife: they're wedded to their bar stools. But, they like each other's company—and Barfly captures their giddy, gin-soaked attempts to make a go of life on the skids.

Director

Barbet Schroeder Photo
Barbet Schroeder

Top cast

Gary Carlos Cervantes Photo
Gary Carlos Cervantes as Cop
J.C. Quinn Photo
J.C. Quinn as Jim
Sandy Martin Photo
Sandy Martin as Janice
Alice Krige Photo
Alice Krige as Tully
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
828.93 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 10
1.58 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 31

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Jeremy_Urquhart 7 / 10

Some greatness contained within.

I've seen too many movies where one shocked character asks a character who's done something dangerous, "Are you crazy?", but I don't think I've ever heard a character just flatly say "yes," and as casually as Mickey Rourke says it. It's a small moment in a film that has many good small details, but it stuck out.Barfly hasn't much of a story, instead following one drunken man as he walks and drinks, staggering through life. He's not partying, like in comedies that involve characters abusing alcohol, but neither does he seem to be drinking himself to death, like Nicolas Cage's character in Leaving Las Vegas. It's an interesting and less expected look at alcohol dependency, and the way drinking a lot seemingly every day ultimately changes one's life, usually for the worse, and occasionally for the better (only really in brief spurts for the latter).But Rourke's character continues to fight through life. He's not likable, but he's interesting. He's a victim to a compulsion for continual drinking, but he doesn't act like a victim, and sometimes it feels like he wants to do what he does. How much agency he has and how much he's subserviant to liquor is interesting to think about.Mickey Rourke can act. Easy pick, but I remember The Wrestler impressing me the most. Barfly is another performance of his where his physicality is fascinating and admirably committed. I think it's the second-best performance I've seen of his. I've known some kinda drunks in my time and I don't think the mannerisms and the way he moves around a room are too far off the truth. This is not a fun drunk, but neither is it a Leaving Las Vegas "I want death now" drunk. It's something new, and I liked that.Faye Dunaway is good, I think, but I'll be honest... I'm not sure how credible she is, because I just haven't seen women of that age in that state. She might look a bit too pretty, too, contrasting against Mickey Rourke who looks consistently rough and schlubby throughout in a way I quite respected.What we have is a sluggish character study of a film, but that central character is good, and Rourke's performance is excellent. Those qualities make Barfly more than worth devoting 100 minutes.
Reviewed by smatysia 8 / 10

"Anyone can get a job. It takes a man to make it without working."

Faye Dunaway's best work since Network! She really nailed this role. Mickey Rourke was superb, so sleazy you could almost smell him through the screen. His character's way of speaking and walking were such affectations that I would normally consider overacting, but here they were just right.
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