Review // Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis tells the story of a talented young folk musician travelling through New York City’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s.  Over the course of a week we follow Llewyn Davis, played by Oscar Isaac, as he hops from couch to couch, asking much more than he gives, propelled forward by a mysterious force.  Through his travels he acquires and loses a cat, learns of his former lover’s pregnancy, gets beat up in alleyways, and drives to Chicago for the chance at a gig.

Llewyn Davis is a struggling artist.  Normally it’s pretty easy to cheer for such a character, especially when (like Llewyn) they’re good at what they do.   Unfortunately, outside of his music Llewyn’s…kind of a jerk.  At the beginning of the film we find him on-stage at the Gaslight Cafe.  After a haunting rendition of “Hang Me” (a traditional folk song, perhaps most recognizably sung by Dave Van Ronk) Llewyn is invited to an alleyway and promptly beaten up.  The next morning he awakes on a sofa at the Gorfein’s apartment, an academic couple who sympathize with his lifestyle and like to show him off at dinner parties.  As he lets himself out, the Gorfein’s tabby cat sneaks out with him.  Together they set out across the city, riding the subway in one of the prettiest sequences filmed all year.  We soon learn that Llewyn used to be one half of a duo, the other half having…quit the biz.  The scars of this loss are still fresh, and Llewyn’s prickly attitude is cast in the shade of grief.  His relationship with his former lover Jean (Carey Mulligan), and her partner Jim (Justin Timberlake) suggests that Llewyn has not been dealing with his grief in a healthy way.  In fact he doesn’t deal with anything in a healthy way.  The news that Jean is pregnant sends him to an abortion doctor with whom he is on a first name basis.  A visit to his elderly agent reveals that his solo record isn’t selling well.  And a desperate trip to Chicago ends up to be more trouble than it’s worth.  Like the tabby cat Llewyn rambles around the city, unable to settle and quick to lash out.  But while the cat might provide the comic relief, the true relief for Llewyn is found in the music.

In their storied careers the Coens have tackled an exceptional range of periods, genres and subjects.  With Inside Llewyn Davis they have crafted a beautiful love letter to American folk music.   The Coen’s frequent music producer T Bone Burnett has suffused the film with contemporary recordings of traditional songs, making them accessible to a modern audience but preserving the timeless feeling.  The fact that all of the music and singing done by the actors was actually recorded live adds even more authenticity to the experience.  Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (standing in for Coen regular Roger Deakins) gives the film a dreamy, desaturated look, like a faded album cover long forgotten in a soggy basement. And – as we have come to expect from the filmmakers and their casting director Ellen Chenoweth – the cast is (literally) pitch perfect.  Carey Mulligan is brilliant as the relentlessly cold Jean.  Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver and Garrett Hedlund all make the most of their limited screen time.  And John Goodman is his usual scene stealing self as a jazz musician who spends an inordinate amount of time in gas station bathrooms.  But Oscar Isaac is the real star.  A relative unknown, the actor gives a quiet but commanding performance and brings the film to a thundering halt each time he picks up his guitar.

Inside Llewyn Davis is perhaps the most expertly crafted film of the year.  There is not a wasted moment, a bad shot or a superfluous scene.  But like all of the Coen’s work, it is not a film of easy answers or immediate pay-off.  Making such a flawed character the source of such beautiful music, the film poses questions about the nature of art.  Is it the product of the artist, or is the artist simply a slave to his craft?  Does Llewyn have any choice but to drag his guitar through America’s snowy streets playing songs that in his words were “never new, and never get old”?  Will he ever catch a break, or is he stuck repeating his routine of open mics and borrowed couches, like the skipping of one of his unsold records?  Who knows.  But like a good song I already want to experience it again, listening closely, and savouring every note.

For more on Inside Llewyn Davis, check out the trailer and our exclusive interview with star Oscar Isaac.

Review by Evan Arppe.

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