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Forget Crash: you'll find Matt Dillon's finest performance of 2005 in Factotum, an intoxicating comedy based on the writings of cult author Charles Bukowski. What's a factotum? As the subtitle says, it's a ‘man of many jobs' - a prime example being Henry ‘Hank' Chinaski (Dillon), an alcoholic and aspiring writer who lurches from one dead-end gig to another. He's a loser, but the film's a well-oiled winner: richly textured, bittersweet and likely to leave you tipsy with laughter.

Norwegian helmer Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories) has smoothly decanted Bukowski's prose from page to screen, distilling its downbeat humour into a series of concise comic episodes that range from Hank's encounter with a crazy French millionaire (Didier Flamand) to his battle with a nasty dose of crabs. And then there are the endless jobs: taxi driver, statue cleaner, pickle factory worker...

"A GLAZE OF GUTTER ROMANTICISM"

Amid all the deadpan hilarity (reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's work) there's a strange tenderness too, evidenced in our anti-hero's erratic relationships with fellow barflies Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei. Both actresses excel, but the film belongs to Dillon's tiddled tour de force. He manages to appear permanently soused without ever overplaying, timing every woozy one-liner and eyebrow furrow to a tee. You could maybe argue that his character's viewed through a glaze of gutter romanticism. But if this isn't the grittiest portrait of alcoholism ever mounted then it certainly offers a great night out, moving at a deliberate pace but never putting a foot wrong. We'll drink to that.