Barton Fink is remarkable for many reasons, the most immediate of which is its style. Fink’s Hollywood, contrary to most depictions, is retro and rotting. Walls drip with all kinds of fluids while halls stretch out to infinite emptiness. It’s chilling, but maybe not as chilling as it is to realize how timeless its themes are. A century after Barton Fink’s setting and decades after the film’s release, writers—and artists in general—still struggle with questions of high and low art, still struggle to reconcile their principles with their privileged positions. A lot of things clash in Barton Fink, but the resulting chaos is compelling, and very hard to look away from.