Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

"Barfly" is a semi-autobiography of legendary Charles Bukowski, directed by Barbet Schroeder. Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway are fantastic in roles of Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski and his lover Wanda, two people with a soul, but soaked in alcohol. This, at times comical drama represents the bottom of society in all its glory. The movie does not have an original soundtrack, but most of the time characters listen to music in bars and on the radio. There are big names such as Booker T. & The M.G.s, The Nighthawks and John Coltrane, and at the initiative of Mickey Rourke, several pieces of great classical composers were included. There is no plot, culmination and denouement, but we look at a few days of bohemian life of Henry and Wanda, in a film where accent is not so much on the story as on the construction of the specific atmosphere. The main assets of this film are wacky, but essentially deep dialogues and the brilliant one-liners by Bukowski.10/10Do you hate them? - No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.Hey baby, nobody suffers like the poor.Anybody can be a non-drunk. It takes a special talent to be a drunk. It takes endurance. Endurance is more important than truth.No money, no job, no rent. Hey, I'm back to normal.And as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the treasure of my escape.Nobody who ever wrote anything worth a damn could ever write in peace... Jesus.So you hired a dick to find an asshole?Growth's for plants. I hate roots.Oh, I had an idea that I'd be discovered after my death.

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 ****

"Henry Chinaski" (Mickey Rourke) is a drunken bum who is a regular customer of a nightclub in Los Angeles called "The Golden Horn". He disdains one of the bartenders named "Eddie" (Frank Stallone) which results in frequent fistfights which Henry typically loses. One night, however, he manages to beat up Eddie and because of it he is ejected from the bar. Needing a new place to satisfy his alcoholism he wanders into another nightclub where he meets "Wanda Wilcox" (Faye Dunaway) who is just as alcoholic as he is. Naturally, they hit it off right away. When she tells him she dislikes people in general, he responds by saying that he doesn't dislike them so much as he simply feels better when they're not around. Anyway, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will just say this isn't just a film about barroom brawls and drinking. Instead there are some philosophical points made in the midst of the squalor that even "Tully Sorenson" (Alice Krige) may not quite understand. At any rate, while I'm not a huge fan of either Mickey Rourke or Faye Dunaway, I have to admit that they both put on a good performance in this film. Above average.

This is one of those rare films that really captures "The down and out!" But, really you're down and out IF you ARE down and out!....Barfly shows the reality of some lives...Wake up..Drink...Drink all day...Drink all night...Drink right before you sleep...and start all over again the next day...I know people that are like each of the characters in this movie...I LOVE THIS FILM!!! truly as real as it gets! Maybe not the fighting all the time?..Could happen like that..But, the drunks I know...Really are too drunk all the time to raise a fist except to summon the barkeeper.....and even then, that sometimes is too much!!....But, everyone's story is different!....For some reason I can watch this film again and again...maybe it's the Jerri springer factor?... You know seeing others worse than yourself?....Either way...a MUST see!!! Rourke is awesome in this one...As usual!!!