"Inside Llewyn Davis" Review

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

This weekend marks the nationwide release of several big awards contenders that have previously been limited to small releases in other territories. Audiences everywhere can now see Inside Llewyn Davis, Her, and Lone Survivor at their local theaters.

First on the list, for me, is Inside Llewyn Davis - the Coen Brothers' latest foray into black comedy and a movie I've been waiting months to see. It tells the story of a young folk singer, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), as he navigates the folk music scene of early 1960s New York.
Davis is one of the Coen's best, thanks to Isaac's star-making performance, a script riddled with the brothers' classic black humor, and another killer soundtrack from T-Bone Burnett.

This is the first I've seen of Isaac since 2011's Drive, which is another one of my favorites. As Llewyn Davis, Isaac reminds us of the tempestuous nature of the world and how different circumstances & experiences contribute to one's character. Oddly enough, he doesn't give us much to root for because, frankly, he's a bit of an asshole. Llewyn's story is told in such raw, simplistic, melancholy terms that it's hard to predict where exactly his life will take him, but that's all part of the appeal. It's not your classic "rags to riches" story.

Along the way, he meets a colorful cast of supporting characters, including an ex-flame (Carey Mulligan), her husband (Justin Timberlake), a crippled jazz musician (John Goodman), his mysterious, grizzled valet (Garrett Hedlund), and a hard-pleasing club owner (F. Murray Abraham).

The cast itself is remarkable, in particular, Isaac for the complex emotional range he displays in the lead role. I just had fun watching him exist onscreen because he always has something to say or do. Inside Llewyn Davis is as entertaining as any movie I've seen in the past year.

As for the soundtrack, frequent Coen collaborator T-Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Ladykillers) assembles another stellar roster of folk songs that, altogether, sound iconic. Marcus Mumford, lead singer of Mumford & Sons, also boasts an associate music producer credit on Inside Llewyn Davis. These two need to work together more often.  

If you make it out to see Davis, and you really should, be on the lookout for some key plot devices. It may take a couple viewings, but I'm interested in determining the significance of the cat as well as the seemingly circular narrative. I think the cat, which Llewyn loses before the animal finds its way home, represents the title character as he struggles to find his identity  as a solo folk act before returning to play one more gig at home - the Gaslight Cafe. But the seemingly circular narrative might suggest a repeating routine in Llewyn's daily life. It's possible that he stays on the same couches in the homes of the same friends and plays shows at the same locations all the time, which is hinted at when Llewyn says "Au revoir" to a man in an alley. As suggested on the film's IMDb message boards, "Au revior" means "until we meet again," which indicates that he might've been beaten up before.

Inside Llewyn Davis is fraught with melancholy, but it's a beautifully-made treat that finds the Coen Brothers in their finest form in years.

A-