The Coen Brothers (director)
Studiocanal (studio)
Cert 15 (certificate)
105 min (length)
01 June 2014 (released)
02 July 2014
The Coen Brothers new film hits you like a battered guitar – set in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961, it tells of Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), an ambitious young folksinger who is as unsuccessful as he is penniless.
To say that his latest album, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, is selling lousy is an understatement. The bitter-cold New York winter further contributes to Llewyn’s state of mind, which is as bleak as his surroundings and the movie’s colour code. Matters are made worse by the fact that his musical partner has recently bumped himself off. Relying on the help of strangers and friends, he slums it out in places usually not his own. One day he happens to wake up in the apartment belonging to two elderly friends of his, the Gorfeins, but when he intends on leaving, their beloved cat escapes and the frustrated musician sees no other option than taking the cat with him and return it later. This is the first of the film’s several ‘follow the cat’ scenarios.
Later on, he begs to crash out in the flat of his friends Jean and Jim Berkey (Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake), but once again the situation looks grim for our troubled troubadour when Jean, during a private moment, lets on that ‘selfish asshole’ Llewyn may be the father of her unborn child and contemplates an abortion. The ensuing odyssey takes him to the gynaecologist (where he learns of another devastating blow), to an embarrassing recording session with other musicians he only agrees to due to lack of money, and a madcap road trip to Chicago with young beat poet Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund) and inflated jazz musician and drug fiend Roland Turner (John Goodman). Oh, and a cat! The trip is yet another disaster for the stubborn Llewyn, who turns down an offer from music promoter Grossman (F. Murray Abraham) suggesting that he might be more successful as part of a trio. Disillusioned, Llewyn returns to New York (the cat saga follows him) and after making peace with the Gorfeins and also with Jean, she arranges a gig for him at the Gaslight Café.
But the times, they are a changing… and once again it’s not Llewyn who lands a deal but another aspiring musician who will soon become the voice of a generation… What Llewyn does achieve is a trashing in a back alley, namely by the husband of the wife whose singing Llewyn had mocked the previous night. In the end, he comes to realise that luck and success simply are not on his side, though for that he’s partly to blame himself. The film almost ends as it started, with a penniless Llewyn Davis aimlessly drifting around the streets of NY, only this time without his guitar…
Inside Llewyn Davis sees the Coen Brothers fourth collaboration with Oscar and Grammy Award-winning music producer T Bone Burnett. It is a touching film about a musician who has the talent, but ultimately is at fault for his failure by refusing to compromise just as those around him are ‘short-sighted’. The cast are compelling, in particular Oscar Isaac manages to evoke some pity while at the same time, his Llewyn Davis is enough asshole for us to agree that he probably gets what he deserves – which is nothing.
The DVD and Blu-ray release contains some insightful bonus material like interviews with cast and directors, footage of studio sessions (including Marcus Mumford, who can be heard as the voice of Mike Timlin, Llewyn’s musical partner who commits suicide. The featurette furthermore gives an interesting impression of New York’s folk scene in the 60’s – convincingly captured in the movie.