MOVIE: Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis: a Coen Brothers movie.  Another excellent and, as one has come to expect, a very unique film from Joel and Ethan Coen.  This time the year is 1961 and Llewyn (a Welsh name we are told) Davis is a folk singer.  The film opens with Davis singing at a Greenwich Village folk club.  The song is “Hang Me. Oh Hang Me” and Davis also sings it at the end of the movie.  It is his best song.  The story is dark.  Davis recorded an album with a partner who committed suicide.  Davis, played by Oscar Isaac, has a good voice but lacks the strength and stage presence to be a lead solo act.  Davis is adrift.  He sleeps on couches at friends’ apartments.  There is a strange sequence of Davis driving to Chicago with Roland Turner, a heroin addicted jazz singer played by John Goodman, in the back seat.  The Turner character is fascinating and could be a Coen movie all by himself.  Davis sleeps at the home of a folk singing couple played by Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake.  Mulligan has some of the best lines – truly, sarcastically funny – in the movie.  As is often the case with Coen Brothers films, the minor characters are more interesting than the main character.  F. Murray Abraham has a brief scene as the Chicago folk club owner who defines Davis and defines Isaac:  a weak lead.  There is a repeated scene outside the Village club that presumably tells us that our acts have consequences.  The second time the scene is shown it makes sense, however, when first shown, its purpose is a mystery.  In its 105 minutes, the movie nails Greenwich Village circa 1961 with strong dialogue and music I haven’t heard in a long while.  There is a lot to like about this film, especially if you’re of a certain age.  If you are a Coen Brothers fan, this film is a must see.  And the opposite also holds true partly because the Davis character is just not a nice person.