Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Barfly is carried almost entirely by Mickey Rourke's magnetic, deeply inhabited performance as Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski — it's one of the great character performances of the 1980s, earning a genuine 4. The plot is deliberately thin and episodic, which suits the material but limits dramatic momentum; it's above average for what it attempts but uneven in execution. Cinematography by Robby Müller is functional and appropriately gritty but not visually distinctive. Novelty is moderate — Bukowski's voice gives it a singular literary flavor, but the 'romantic losers on skid row' milieu had precedents. The ending drifts rather than resolves, feeling anticlimactic and somewhat unsatisfying even by the film's own loose standards.