I love the Coen brothers, so I expected to love their latest film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Instead, I can only say I liked it, though the soundtrack (produced by the divine T-Bone Burnett with input from Marcus Mumford) will stay with me forever. And perhaps that's the point - this is a movie about folk music, where the songs live on through the generations, while the singers and their stories mostly fade away from memory.
At the center of the film is, of course, Llewyn Davis, a struggling musician loosely modeled after real-life folk musician Dave Van Ronk. Oscar Isaac plays Davis, in a flawless performance that would have won multiple accolades in any other year but has sadly been eclipsed this year by a glut of Oscar-worthy performances. The movie opens with a haunting rendition of Hang Me, Oh Hang Me in a smoky cafe, with nothing but Isaac's voice and guitar performing live, as are all the other performances in this movie. It is a perfect introduction to this film that beautifully captures the wintry look and feel of Greenwich Village in 1961 and the burgeoning folk music scene.
Llewyn hasn't found his big break, and for one week, this movie follows him from performance to performance, as he sleeps on friends' couches and grows increasingly disenchanted with the life he has chosen. This character reminded me immediately of Larry Gopnik in another Coen brothers film, A Serious Man. Like Larry, Llewyn has trials and tribulations heaped upon him in unforgiving quantities. Every time he chooses a path, you feel an ominous sense of dread that he has yet again made the wrong decision. It is a testament to my eternal cinematic optimism that at one point in this film, I genuinely thought Davis had finally made it. Sadly, I was mistaken.
The supporting cast includes Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan as folk duo, Jim and Jean, as well as Adam Driver, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and others who sail in and out of Llewyn's life. Inside Llewyn Davis feels more like a series of sketches, a dark catalog of failures that amounts to nothing much at the end. Perhaps what rankles most is that the music is so wonderful and Llewyn's songs are so moving that you can't understand why he isn't more successful. Sadly, that's the price of being an artist; talent is so rarely rewarded. The Coen brothers have escaped that fate, but Llewyn Davis does not.
At the center of the film is, of course, Llewyn Davis, a struggling musician loosely modeled after real-life folk musician Dave Van Ronk. Oscar Isaac plays Davis, in a flawless performance that would have won multiple accolades in any other year but has sadly been eclipsed this year by a glut of Oscar-worthy performances. The movie opens with a haunting rendition of Hang Me, Oh Hang Me in a smoky cafe, with nothing but Isaac's voice and guitar performing live, as are all the other performances in this movie. It is a perfect introduction to this film that beautifully captures the wintry look and feel of Greenwich Village in 1961 and the burgeoning folk music scene.Llewyn hasn't found his big break, and for one week, this movie follows him from performance to performance, as he sleeps on friends' couches and grows increasingly disenchanted with the life he has chosen. This character reminded me immediately of Larry Gopnik in another Coen brothers film, A Serious Man. Like Larry, Llewyn has trials and tribulations heaped upon him in unforgiving quantities. Every time he chooses a path, you feel an ominous sense of dread that he has yet again made the wrong decision. It is a testament to my eternal cinematic optimism that at one point in this film, I genuinely thought Davis had finally made it. Sadly, I was mistaken.
The supporting cast includes Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan as folk duo, Jim and Jean, as well as Adam Driver, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and others who sail in and out of Llewyn's life. Inside Llewyn Davis feels more like a series of sketches, a dark catalog of failures that amounts to nothing much at the end. Perhaps what rankles most is that the music is so wonderful and Llewyn's songs are so moving that you can't understand why he isn't more successful. Sadly, that's the price of being an artist; talent is so rarely rewarded. The Coen brothers have escaped that fate, but Llewyn Davis does not.
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