rodrig58 Barbet Schroeder at his best! And "More" and "Single White Female" I really enjoyed. Very much. But here, the director managed to overcome himself. When I first saw it, I think it was in 1987 or 1988, I did not like it, I found it boring. I was only 29 years old. Watched again in June 2018, I rediscovered it, I see it with other eyes and another mind. A true masterpiece, a unique cinema piece. Mickey Rourke makes a role of great value. Faye Dunaway the same. Also Alice Krige who is very beautiful. All the actors are exceptional. The story is exceptional. The music is cool. Directed and filmed brilliantly. I think I've woken up, at least, after 30 years...

moonspinner55 Poet and author Charles Bukowski's autobiographical account of being a destitute drunk in modern-day Los Angeles. Henry Chinaski staggers into bars and willfully gets into fights, rubs everyone the wrong way, but eventually meets a lonely wreck of a woman--a possible kindred spirit, though one without dreams to write about--who needs a man to drink with. Bukowski had mixed feelings about Mickey Rourke's lead portrayal and, indeed, the actor gives a very flamboyant performance that takes some time adjusting to. Rourke is obviously giving director Barbet Schroeder what he wants, but there's a touch of self-amused grandstanding in Rourke's delivery that works against the licking-the-gutters scenario (it's too 'show biz'). Faye Dunaway is excellent in support, and Schroeder's eye for gritty detail is intriguing, but this character portrait seems stretched to the breaking point. Still, one of the highlights of the Cannon Film Group's legacy, although the movie was a box-office disappointment. **1/2 from ****

Theo Robertson The late Charles Bukowski is a highly regarded and influential writer in America . I know this because I once had a friend ( Hope you read this Ange and apologies in advance ) who was a massive fan and if it wasn't for her I'd never heard of the guy who is totally unknown in Britain and if it wasn't for this film adaptation of his semi autobiographical novel BARFLY he'd be even more obscure , but even then this film is half forgotten and I was totally convinced that it was a star vehicle for Jack Nicholson and Meryll Streep until I saw it again today and I'm not surprised it's somewhat forgotten . Some people have criticised it's lost something from page to screen . Well I think that's happens to drunks . We've all heard of the vodka diet - " I lost four days in a week " One can perhaps see the appeal of the black comedy elements as Henry Chinaski and Wanda Wilcox as they drink themselves in to nightly oblivion . There is of course strong autobiographical elements to the story with Chinaski being Charles Bukowski in everything but name and the character arc of Chinaski mirroring that of Bukowski . Chinaski is an urban anti-hero but if there's a problem with anti-heroes they've a peculiar idiosyncratic character quirks that makes them unlikable to a degree . The degree of unlikability to Chinaski is a bit too extreme . He's not a courageous quixotic existentialist figure fighting against a world of indifference but one who is happy to live life through alcoholic soma . As someone who grew up in a drinking culture in the West of Scotland surrounded by drunks I can state without fear of contradiction that drunks are almost universally worthless degenerates amongst the lowest examples of humanity . Disagree ? If someone's ambition extends no further then their next drink then how is that different from an insect whose whole DNA instructs it to have no more ambition to nibble the nearest leaf ? No difference at all from an intellectual point of view . Let's not also forget that in Victorian Britain all drugs were legal and yet literature chronicles that the worst drug of the masses was alcohol . More addictive than heroin , more mind bending than magic mushrooms alcohol along with religion are the worst thing the human species has invented

the419 I couldn't get past Mickey Rourke's embarrassing performance. His attempt to capture Bukowski's dialect was so awful it made me cringe with every syllable. Honestly, I felt uncomfortable watching this film it was so bad. Run for your life. I think Mr. Rourke took the title of the film literally and just thought it was a movie about a drunk, skipping the nuanced complexities of the character which Bukowski had attempted to develop. Little wonder Bukowski would follow-up this work with "Hollywood," his scathing diatribe against ... Hollywood. Despite being repulsed by the whole Hollywood scene, one wonders whether or not there was some animus directed toward Rourke's pitiful interpretation of his character. This movie is absolutely sad and I would urge you not to waste 2 hours of your life watching it.