Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, & John Goodman. IMDB says: “A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.”
Llewyn Davis is struggling to make it in the early 60’s folk music scene. He’s had the taste of success with his late partner, and they even had one popular hit before tragedy forced him to go solo. Now he’s couch surfing across New York City, living paycheck to paycheck and not having much luck with making a career out of his true talent.
Oscar Isaac certainly is talented from his beautiful singing voice, guitar strumming, and breakout acting performance in Inside Llewyn Davis. His character is an interesting subject for a character piece – he loves music and he’s also elitist when it comes to his disdain for non-NYC based talent who come through to perform at the Gaslight Cafe. They’re becoming more successful but he finds them to be inauthentic. He passes on opportunities to make money off material under his preferred caliber, not willing to settle for a beggars-can’t-be-choosers mentality. He’s also kind of a dick. It’s one of the selling points for this film. He’s funny when he’s callous but it’s also what seems to be holding him back the most, professionally and personally.
My issue with the film is similar to what I felt from A Serious Man. Sure it’s fairly entertaining to see your lead character get some bull shit dealt to him and see how it all plays out, but when the whole film is based around that concept and the inevitability of your lead’s fate it leaves me feeling at best empty, and at worst cold or pissed off. Luckily for this film there were enough merits for me to like it considerably more than A Serious Man, but when it ended I couldn’t help but feel very unaffected by everything I just saw. It just happened, I saw it, and then I spent an entire dinner talking Rob off the edge of madness over our problems with the film (more on his thoughts below).
What saves the film for me are three things. The first is the aforementioned perfection of Oscar Isaac’s performance. The second is the music. If you don’t like folk music you may find the numerous times songs are played in full throughout the film unbearable. Fortunately for me, I relished in those moments and can’t wait to listen to the soundtrack (especially the most prominent song, “Fare Thee Well”). The third is the few excellent scenes or running ideas (such as a cat Llewyn is forced to care for, which was a detail that I loved). A recording studio scene where Llewyn performs one of those songs he thinks are terrible but is willing to do for a quick buck is one of the highlights. He is accompanying Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver’s characters on the song “Please Mr. Kennedy” and it’s simply hilarious. Llewyn also takes a road trip with John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund that’s good for some of the funnier lines and offbeat moments.
Unfortunately, these side characters are barely there. I know the focus is on a week in Llewyn’s life, but when you give me these interesting people on the periphery but they’re barely able to make an appearance, it is a bit disappointing. They become just flashes of what could have been a truly excellent supporting cast, especially Carey Mulligan who’s performing a very broadly written character. It mirrors the flashes of story lines that start to develop and then sort of meander away without any attention. There were several interesting directions the story appeared to be going with only to drop them completely.
But maybe that’s not the film’s problem but mine. I’m sure the Coens got across exactly what they intended. They didn’t approach any of the potential story lines because Llewyn was not willing or able to go there as a character. In fact the ending (which at least has an interesting structural choice) shows just how stuck he is in his ways. To me, that’s just not a satisfying movie experience. There’s lots to appreciate here, and I know I’ll return for the music and Oscar Isaac, but for me not a film I could properly enjoy.
Inside Llewyn Davis follows the folk singer around New York City and a brief trip to Chicago as he tries to make it as a solo artist after the death of his music partner. Oscar Isaac gives a great performance as an actor and a singer. My favorite parts of the film were easily when he sings and accompanies himself on guitar. Justin Timberlake and John Goodman also give great, albeit short, performances.
Besides the performances of these actors, there wasn’t much else I liked about Inside Llewyn Davis. The Coen Brothers wrote the film similarly to A Serious Man, which doesn’t lay out the plot with a traditional beginning, middle, and end. It just focuses on a short time period in a character’s life without a fully realized story arc. I’m not completely against this type of storytelling (I did enjoy Barton Fink), but Inside Llewyn Davis didn’t offer enough for me dwell upon or admire at its end. I’m afraid the film is going to go the way of A Serious Man and I will have little reaction to it past wondering what could’ve been done differently.
Basically, I feel like the movie was too wrapped up in presenting the film in an overtly artful way while also trying hard to make the audience feel like they are in Davis’s browbeaten shoes to really be enjoyable. I’ve always had trouble enjoying films where the main character is written to go through more than their fair share of shit without adequate redemption. It’s just frustrating to me when those bull shit scenarios just seem to be happening for the sake of something offbeat to be on screen without leading to a resolution.
All in all, I feel like I got a message that I can take away from the film about Llewyn Davis’s life that may or may not be what was intended or what would be the optimum effect of the film, but it still wasn’t an enjoyable experience. If you liked A Serious Man, or you really like folk music, I say give this a shot. Otherwise, it may be best to wait to check this out at home.
