★★★½
The latest from Joel and Ethan Coen is “Inside Llewyn
Davis”, a look at the folk music scene in New York City in 1961, right before a
certain young man began singing about how the answers, my friend, are blowin’
in the wind. The Coens film is a visually striking film, complete with
memorable songs from industry legend T Bone Burnett and Mumford and Sons
frontman Marcus Mumford. It also showcases the Brothers on the top of their
game.
Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a folk singer. He called
Greenwich Village his home, even though he just lives on other people’s couches
on a rotating basis. And if you ask his friend Jean (Carey Mulligan), Llewyn
Davis is an asshole. That’s because she’s pregnant and it might be his. Of
course, it might be Jim’s (Justin Timberlake), her boyfriend and musical
collaborator (they’re a singing duo themselves, and quite popular). She wants
Jim’s baby but not Llewyn’s. So she needs to terminate it just in case it isn’t
Llewyn’s. Which is why he’s an asshole.
Llewyn’s songs are good. He has representation with a very
small manager, Mel (Jerry Grayson), but doesn’t earn enough money from him.
Llewyn was in a folk duo earlier in his career, but his counterpart committed
suicide, leaving Llewyn alone to continue on as a solo artist. Llewyn has asked
Mel to send his new solo record to a manager in Chicago named Bud Grossman (F.
Murray Abraham) who also runs his own club. He’s sure Bud will love his music
and agree to manage him. He’s already set up Jim and Jean’s dorky friend Troy
Nelson (Stark Sands) so how could he not like Llewyn?
After a recording session for an awful yet insanely catchy
song that Jim wrote with Al Cody (Adam Driver), Llewyn decides to forgo the
royalties and just take a lump sum check for the session right now. He ends up
using the money to help pay for gas to ride along with one of Al’s friends,
jazz musician Roland Turner (John Goodman) and his valet Johnny Five (Garrett
Hedlund) to Chicago. There, he hopes to catch the attention of Bud Grossman and
become the biggest thing in folk music.
This is vintage Coen Brothers material, from the story to
its structure to the well-crafted handling of the filmmaking itself. And it’s
as close to a musical as we’ve seen from them, so of course the music is
phenomenal as well. The Brothers have made a career making films about gritty
people that don’t just despise one another, but they hate themselves too.
Llewyn Davis is this kind of character. “Inside Llewyn Davis” closely remebles
the tone of their earlier film “A Serious Man”. One centralized character that
isn’t very likeable. You would think that formula would make for a chaotic
film, and left to any other filmmaker, it probably would be. But the Coen
Brothers are right at home with this type of subject.
Are you supposed to love him or hate him? The Brothers don’t
really give us anything to love about him, except maybe his music. He’s rude to
just about everyone he meets. He doesn’t really care about the feelings of
Jean, who he may or may not have put in a troubling situation. Although he
feels she’s partially to blame, but who says that in this situation? According
to Jean, an asshole would. Which is what Llewyn is.
The Brothers take another snapshot of life with this story.
Only this time, they focus entirely on one individual. Isaac is on screen for
every scene of this film, and he’s only missing from a select few frames. He
performs all the music as well. Isaac succeeds in brilliant fashion by playing
a character no one likes, yet is still trying to gain some of your emotion in
process. There are a few moments when I found myself empathizing with him only
to be slapped back into reality by a brash comment in the following scene.
The rest of the cast is filled out with people who attempt
to balance out Llewyn, but to little success. Mulligan is fantastic in her role
as Jean, a woman with a sweet folky singing voice and a smile to make men’s
hearts melt when she’s on stage singing. Off state, she’s an angry woman
cursing like a sailor whenever she’s around Llewyn. Timberlake as Jim is also
wonderful in the role (which is becoming somewhat of a consistent critique of
Timberlake; the man can act). He’s nice and loveable like Jean is on stage, but
off stage he carries the same mannerisms. He’s hopefully and optimistic about
life in general, something not usually seen in characters from films about
1960s America.
Some of the best moments in the film come during Llewyn’s
drive from New York to Chicago with Goodman and Hedlund. Goodman is a Coen
staple appearing in well over a handful of their films. He’s just as loud and
boisterous as ever. It’s almost as if the Coens write these roles specifically
for him (which they probably do). He’s as memorable as his previous Coen
characters like Gale Snoats, Charlie Meadows, Walter Sobchak and Big Dan
Teague. Only this time, he clocks very little screen time. I wish he would have
had a larger presence in this film, but it’s not his movie. This is all about
Llewyn and how he interacts with the people who enter in and out of his life.
Roland Turner is just another blip on the overall life of Llewyn Davis.
“Inside Llewyn Davis” might not be the Coen Brothers
masterpiece, but it is certainly a fascinating looks at the folk music scene of
the early 1960s and the people involved in it right before it became a hugely
popular genre of music. To me, the story is meant to be a reflective look on
everyone in the audience to see how you may or may stack up next to the
ambitions of Llewyn Davis.
He’s not a nice guy, but he’s got a dream. He wants to make
that dream come true. He’ll use people, abuse people and step on anyone who
gets in his way. Every one of us has a dream. Llewyn’s just chasing after his. What’s
so wrong with that? The issue is not what your dream is, but how you go about
attaining it. Many people get to where they’re going without being rude. Llewyn
doesn’t understand that. In the end, he gets exactly what he deserves: an
actual and at the same time metaphorical kick in the gut. This is the
appropriate and perfect ending for Llewyn, and the Coens give it to him in a
very smart way.
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