Self-declared aspiring writer Hank Chinaski has neither qualifications, ambition nor ethics. Any dead-end job he lands is soon lost through laziness or mischief. His relationship with fellow deadbeat Jan gets strained to crisis through her insecurity, so he even gives up betting on horses which brought in easy money. –IMDb
Bent Hamer is a film director, writer and producer, born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1956.
Hamer studied film theory and literature at the University of Stockholm and the Stockholm Film School. In addition to his feature films, he has written and directed a number of short films and documentaries. His first film, Eggs, premiered at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it was shown in the Directors’ Fortnight section. That same year, it was shown in competition at the Moscow International Film Festival where it won the award for Best First Film; it also received the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1995 Toronto Film Festival. His 2003 film Kitchen Stories screened at many international festivals and was the Norwegian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In April 2004, Bent Hamer started shooting Factotum based on the novel of the same name by US poet and writer Charles Bukowski. The screenplay was written by Hamer and Jim Stark… read more
LOVED this...I'm a sucker for boozy, unconventional, writer lowlife angels. I really hope this was supposed to be darkly funny because I was laughing throughout.
It captures Bukowski's tone as well as can be expected. Matt Dillon embodies Chinaski without being over-the-top about it and Kristin Asbjørnsen's soundtrack is stellar.
It fails to fascinate as much as the book does, lacks that spark that makes you want to watch a movie again and again. 4/5
Captures all the street-level depressive alcoholic haze that hovers like an invisible atmosphere behind Bukowski’s outrageous drunken exploits. Not as in-your-face as Barfly (as I remember it), and… read review