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List Price: $14.95 | | Label: Ifc
Salesrank: 16962
Released: December 26, 2006 |
| Our Price: $6.89 |
| Used Price: $2.20 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Henry Chinaski works in factories and warehouses to support what he really wants to do: drink bet on the horses take up with women as rootless as he is and above all write stories that no one wants to publish. Based on the novel by Charles Bukowski Factotum is the story of a man living on the edge of a writer who is willing to risk everything to make sure that his life is his poetry.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 796019797351 Manufacturer No: 79735
Description of Factotum:
Matt Dillon lumbers through Factotum like a side of beef just starting to rot, lifting his chin in quiet, semi-comic reflections on the domestic squalor of a booze-ridden life. His slow, thick performance--as if he had something more viscous than blood running through his veins--has a weary gravitas that veers from wry resignation to bursts of violence that he regrets even as he's committing them. As Henry Chinaski (an alter ego of author Charles Bukowski), Dillon idly skips from job to job, seeking one that will allow him to continue his two pursuits: Writing and drinking. He gets enmeshed with one woman (Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol) and dallies with another (Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom), but his only true love is the bottle. Despite this bleak storyline, Factotum proceeds with an almost lighthearted pace, each spare scene delivered with a dry, almost wistful tone of regret and flashes of gallows humor. Director Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories) is from Norway and has a similar aesthetic to Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki (The Man Without a Past); sly slices-of-life that deliver bad news with a gentle, forgiving touch. --Bret Fetzer
Factotum Reviews:
Excellent film, great acting, very good direction 
2008-10-02 - Now right of the bat, I must mention that a lot of reviewers are unhappy because the original character was quite different and his intrigue was somewhat compromised in this film. I am one of those lucky people who knew nothing about the book, saw the film for what it was without knowing anything about the book, the character and sundry. I think it is a very good film in itself.
There are few wasteful films of the sort that deserve a second opinion but Factotum truly stood it's ground and without being boisterous, gave a very good account of Hank Chinaski. I only saw it recently and I must say Dillon is a very good actor. I've seen numerous threads since complaining about who else could have done more justice to the character and that really downs me.
Anyhow, there is a few love-making scenes and hedonism is kept alive. I also found it very slyly humoros how a failed writer, a failed professional with little discipline in his life advocates and professes beleifs and quotes. You'll know once you watch this film.
If you like this film, you might like, "Sideways" , "Love Liza" , "American Splendor" and "Hollywoodland" - Also vice versa.
Kudos to Matt Dillon. This, in my unwanted opinion, is his best performance till date.
Waste of time 
2008-06-17 - Since the greatest crime one could commit (according to Bukowski) was to waste his freaking time, this film is something of a curse.
It's pretty lousy film making. If you're going to make a book out of something like FACTOTUM, you should at least be able to create something far more effective than this. While Dillon was really, really good in his portrayal of Bukowski, the rest of the movie is something of a train wreck. You never know where you're standing if you're unfamiliar with Buk's writing, and one feels completely let down if you are an admirer of the vast spread of Charles Bukowski's stories, novels, essay, and poems.
Don't waste your time. There are plenty of better things to read and view.
Pretty good but a little dissapointed 
2008-05-28 - First off, I love Bukowski and have been reading his poetry, short stories and novels for 25 years and was very interested to see Factotum.
Matt Dillon plays the part of Henry Chinaski pretty well, but theres is something missing from Bukowski's alter ego on the screen. Dillon is just not quite gritty enough and seems to be just a little too vacant in my opinion. I don't want to give the impression that his performance is bad because it isn't and is probably one of his better performances, although I disagree slighly with how the part was played.
I do recommend watching this if you are a Bukowski fan and the price is right for the DVD.
BENT HAMER, OPUS 4
2008-05-14 - ***1/2 2005. This motion picture is an adaptation of Charles Bukowski's Factotum ant it was co-written and directed by the Norwegian director Bent Hamer. Henry Chinaski writes novellas, is most of the time drunk and can't keep a job. This adaptation of Charles Bukowski is a very good surprise to me. Bent Hamer managed to give us the impression that all the characters seem to live in a cloud and in their own personal alcoholized world so that the rare explosions of violence of Henri Chinaski or the simple display of a raw feeling hit us with an incredible violence. Recommended.
Not a bad Bukowski adaptation, but could have been much better
2008-04-23 - Matt Dillon lumbers around in his role as Hank Chinaski, the alter-ego of beloved author Charles Bukowski, in this lukewarm adaptation of Bukowski's Factotum. In Factotum, we witness Hank's slumming around from job to job with no sense of direction, other than getting drunk and writing short stories. His lengthy affair with his drinking equal Jan (Lili Taylor) only fuels his inner-demons, all of which is captured by Norwegian director Bent Hamer. Dillon is good as Chinaski, nicely capturing most of Bukowski's own spirit in the role. Lili Taylor however wonderfully downplays her role as Jan; a character that like Chinaski we can loathe and sympathize with on a more than consistent basis. Even Marisa Tomei in a brief but memorable role manages to shine. Where Factotum falters is mainly with the script and direction from Bent Hamer. While most of the personality and bleakness that Bukowski put to paper is here, but there is just something in the film that makes it feel kind of empty. Maybe it's just that Bukowski's work just doesn't translate well to film, or maybe it's something else. In any case, Factotum is what it is, and for Bukowski fans and fans of Matt Dillon, the film is definitely worth a look.
