One of the great advantages of seeing movies in a worn-out theater in former East Berlin is that, unlike at a state-of-the-art American multiplex, it is not illegal to drink world-class beer along with your film. Another advantage: certain films open months before their New York City release date. On a recent visit, "Factotum," Bent Hamer's adaptation/biopic of hard-drinking, hard-living writer Charles Bukowski, perfectly complimented the Pilsner.

When Matt Dillon first shuffles on screen with the trademark sale bin wardrobe, the greasy hair and ruddy cheeks, you can't help but wonder--after Babette Schroeder's "Barfly" and the satisfying documentary "Born Into This," did we really need another Bukowski flick? The answer comes almost right away. Dillon--who bears the name of Bukowski's fictional alter ego Henry Chinaski--drives off with the company ice van, parks it, door agape, in front of a bar, and knocks back a few cold ones while his freight melts outside. When his boss terminates his employment, Chinaski just shrugs it off, and with a grin, you realize that we can never have enough of Bukowski's fierce independence.

And so, off to another job: sorting cukes at the pickle factory, applying for a taxi license, dusting off four-story-tall statues--none of it matters to Chinaski because all he wants to do is write, drink, screw, and gamble. But the writing comes first, and he diligently sends off story manuscripts to literary magazines. Never mind that he doesn't have a steady return address.

Chinaski's haphazard adventures come into focus when he hooks up with Jan (Lili Taylor), a fellow lush who makes pancakes in her underwear. She gets Chinaski into fights at the racetrack and steals single cigarettes from cars. Together, they make the perfect outcast underdog couple. In one of their most intimate and revealing scenes, they get up one by one to vomit up last night's debauchery, light cigarettes and pop open a beer, to start all over again.

But then Chinaski gets fired (again!), he's got a bad case of the crabs to deal with, he breaks up with Jan. Outlandish scenes tumble into each other, buoyed by Bukowski's drunken wit and saved from precocious romanticism by his direct, unglamorous honesty. In one especially poignant episode, Chinaski joins Laura (Marisa Tomei) and her aging sugar daddy (Didier Flamand) on a short-lived yacht trip.

"Factotum" is hilarious, sobering, and inspiring, often at the same time. Eventually, Chinaski finds himself without home or friends, alone with pen and paper in a strip club, for a pitch-perfect ending that's punctuated by a rousing Bukowski quote about his fearless need to create at any price. I'll drink to that.

Picturehouse will release "Factotum" in the U.S. on Februrary 24, 2006.