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Has anyone seen Factotum? It's out on DVD now and I'm thinking of renting it. 

It wasn't fabulous, but it was certainly worth a watch. Some reviewers felt it glossed over or romanticized the misery of Bukowski's life, but I thought there was despair and melancholy enough.

It's just kind of hard for me to imagine someone as good looking at Matt Dillon playing Bukowski, but I have heard he did a good job with it. Thoughts?

Oh, Dillon uglies himself up a bit. No shiny-chest, muscle-bearing boy toy in this role.

I also want to see this, although I do think there may have been better choices for which of Buk's novels to make into a film. Anyway, it's now on my Netflix Queue so I'll try to report back with some thoughts!

I saw it quite a while ago, and really don't remember very much of it at all. Wish I had more to offer.

In reply to #4: Interesting, he's still kind of a pretty-boy though!

The film Factotum did an outstanding job of adapting the narrative of the novel.  It's certainly "independent film" like in it's honest unforgiving display of the everyday life of an alcoholic.  The audience also gets to see a different side of a usually tough-guy Matt Dillon.  In the movie, his character struggles to keep a job because of his disease but all the while maintains his passion for writing.  It's a bit of a train-wreck like experience to watch but if you're into films that don't solve every problem in two hours, it's an honest study of a fictionalized great American writer.