Factotum is, at last, another film based on the writings of our favorite drunken muse, Charles Bukowski. Matt Dillion plays Hank Chinaski, Bukowski’s literary alter ego, and is a factotum, as the movies subtitle explains, a man who performs many jobs. Producer and Director Bent Hamer – largely unknown to US audiences previous to this – is a Norwegian filmmaker with an obvious deep reverence and affinity with the source material.

We follow Chinaski as he bounces from one bad job to the next, each more demeaning and depressing than the last; each time unceremoniously fired; each on-the-job indignity drowned in a sea of beer and wine and whiskey. Unrepentant and unwilling to play by the rules, Chinaski lives the life of a sometimes writer, sometimes horseplayer, sometimes bum, stumbling drunkenly through his life. The film unfolds as a series of loosely connected, but highly entertaining vignettes, moving at a leisurely but assured pace, but in no particular direction, plot wise, which is very much in keeping with Bukowski’s novel.

While some might question the choice of Matt Dillon for this role, he has come a long way in his career, and he is outstanding here, turning out a performance full of pathos and the dark comic verve that illuminates all Bukowski’s best writings. Dillion’s Chinaski is on par Mickey Rourke’s excellent and eccentric interpretation of the same character seen in the 1987 film, Barfly.

Bukowski fans should find a lot to like in Factotum, as we do here at BarAmerica. So whether you want to go get yourself liquored up and then down head to the local theater, or wait to see the DVD over a twelve-pack of tall boys, we think you’ll be glad you did.