*New York Film Festival 2013 Review*
Inside Llewyn Davis seems like an odd film for The Coen Brothers to tackle in this point of the career, but that makes it that much more interesting. With it they portray the 1961 Greenwich Village folk scene, focusing on a struggling folk musician named Llewyn Davis, played by an exceptionally excellent Oscar Issac.
Before Llewyn Davis was trying to make it as a solo act, he was doing well enough as duo with his former partner, Mike. But as is life, things happen and he is forced to try his hand as a solo act, but things aren’t going to so hot for him. The same can be said with the rest of his life, as he plays the role of a solo act with all the people in his life. Jean (Carey Mulligan), his ex-lover, tells him that “Everything you touch turns to shit”, and there’s not much denial from him on this brutal accusation. While leaving a friends apartment he accidentally lets their cat escape, catches it, only to lose it again later. So, she’s kinda right.
His life isn’t going to hot, and he resorts to couch surfing until he pulls his career out of the gutter. He gets no royalties from his album, which isn’t selling, or getting notice from the people that it should be. He can’t even afford a winter coat.
The brutal reality of this stings anymore because to us, the audience, Llewyn Davis is an extremely talented musician. The film opens with one of the many great song pieces that were amazingly performed live by Issac. The music was produced by T-Bone Burnett who worked with Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons on the soundtrack. The songs are all there, and insanely great (Issac is amazing), but he just can’t seem to catch a break. Even when he participates in something that has a shot to earn him money off of royalties, he opts to wave his rights to royalties in order to cash in on a quicker payout. He seriously is a down on his luck type of guy, a wanderer who will seemingly be stuck with his guitar and some formation of whatever orange cat he can find on the streets of New York. Part of me wonders if that cat represented his partner Mike, who Davis can’t seem to get rid of, but at the same time, really could use him back.
Throughout Davis’ journey in the film he meets an eclectic wide range of characters featuring a truly eclectic cast of actors. Justin Timberlake plays Jean’s new lover Jim. Adam Driver plays a musician named Al Cody. Garret Hedlund plays a mysterious driver/chauffeur to an asinine big shot played by John Goodman. Ethan Phillips and Robin Barlett played Mitch & Lillion Gorfein, an elder couple that let Llewyn crash at their place and play a parental role in his life. Jerry Grayson plays the record label man handling Davis’ record, and Alex Karpovsky plays an awkward dinner guests of the Gorfein’s. Quite a cast.
Not enough can be said about Oscar Issac’s performance in this film. He’s great overall, but musically, he unveils an enormous amount of talent that took be by surprise. He performed all of his musical pieces in live takes, something that must be ever tougher than we think. He re-teams with his Drive co-star Carey Mulligan, who is great as usual. She nails the bitter temperamental nature of her character that is needed to deal with Davis. She only performs one live song, performed alongside Timberlake, and it’s a good one. All the musical performances are astonishing to watch unfold, to the point where you have to remind yourself not to clap because its not actually live.
The Coen Brothers attention to detail is enormous. You are emerged into the 60’s New York City folk scene, and feel a part of it. The script is razor sharp from beginning to end, featuring some great fast paced dialogue that some will see connections to The Big Lebowski. The soundtrack is one of the year’s best, one of the few that I will actually seek out on vinyl once it is released. Kudos to T-Bone Burnett and Mumford on their work here, they really brought the best out of the cast.
If you’re expecting a happy story where he magically finds success and is beloved by all, this isn’t that movie. Sure there is plenty of The Coen’s dark humor, and there are even flashes of warmth here and there, but on the whole Inside Llewyn Davis is a pretty dark tale. Instead the Coen’s deliver a harsh lesson that sometimes being good, isn’t good enough. Sometimes you are great, and get ignored. It’s happened to all of us, which makes the point just that much more poignant. You’re hit by a brick wall of melancholy, and although it hurts, once you hear Llewyn Davis pick up that guitar and sing us a song, it feels that much better.
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