SOURCE: "Crass Consciousness," in Placing Movies: The Practice of Film Criticism, University of California Press, 1995, pp. 248-53.

In the following review, Rosenbaum criticizes inconsistencies in Barton Fink.

I'm not one of the Coen brothers' biggest fans. I walked out of Blood Simple, their first feature. The main sentiment I took away from Raising Arizona and Miller's Crossing—their second and third efforts, both of which I stayed to the end of—was that at least each new Coen brothers movie was a discernible improvement over the last. Raising Arizona may have had some of the same crass, gratuitous condescension toward its country characters as Blood Simple but it also had a sweeter edge and more visual flair. In both craft and stylishness, Miller's Crossing was another step forward, and even if I never really believed in either the period ambience or the characters—the dialogue bristled with anachronisms...