Inside Llewyn Davis

Year: 2013
Genre: Drama
Directed: Joel & Ethan Coen
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett, Max Casella, Jerry Grayson, Jeanine Serralles, Adam Driv, Stark Sands, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham
Production: StudioCanal

When entering a Coen Brothers movie, it's probably best to leave all expectations at the door. Zigzagging between lighthearted farces, tense thrillers and crime stories, loving and literate homages to classic Hollywood and the occasional remake, you never quite know what you're getting into until you strap in an let it ride. One thing that unites these disparate films including and especially Inside Llewyn Davis are the sibling's mischievous curiosity. Characters dominate their films in a certain way that goes beyond regular script dynamics. Even minor players leave in impression in the mind of the viewer. Major characters however, not only leave an impression but you get the sense they're being played with like rodents in the swatting paws of cunning feline. We sense that tension in everything from the tawdry misadventures of The Dude in The Big Lebowski (1998), to the ambiguous ending of No Country for Old Men (2007) to the melancholic ironies that dominated Inside Llewyn Davis.

We open with our protagonist sitting on a bar stool, strumming on a guitar, smoking a cigarette and singing to a crowd with gravelly pensiveness. After his set he's coaxed to the back dumpsters where he's beat up by an obscured cowboy. We then meet up with Llewyn (Isaac) in a friends apartment. He pets their cat, strums a few chords, has a quick meal and walks out the door to meet his destiny in much the same way anyone in New York City circa 1961 would. Before leaving however, he spots and old record featuring him and his old singing partner. The cat escapes the apartment with the door locking behind Llewyn. With no choice, he takes the cat with him as he struggles to find rewarding work as a folk musician.

In order to make sense of the story, one needs to open themselves up to knowing a character like the misanthropic Llewyn. He's talented sure, but he's also distant, irresponsible, fuming with frustration and, most importantly, afraid and unsure. He hides his fear behind layers of aloofness and a false representation of what he thinks a "tortured artist" should be. He derides his friends for delving into novelty, spuriously chides the woman (Mulligan) of his (maybe) child before asking her for favor and refuses gigs because they're supposedly beneath him. One could argue that the man simply wants to preserve some fidelity in the Greenwich Village music scene but most audience members would conclude Llewyn Davis is an unlikable layabout.

Yet he's also the savviest of the Coen's long line of iconic characters. As the writer/directors drop their signature absurdity into the mix, Davis seems to either shrug it off in indifference or give a silent, helpless look of "you got to be kidding me." Oscar Isaac's deft performance never reaches the spastic, whimpering heights of Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man (2009) nor does he resign himself to his role like Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. He's somewhere in-between the two extremes anchoring the film from listing into nostalgia and art purest veneration.

The Dude abides.

It's a telling detail that the name of the cat Llewyn totes around is named Ulysses; not only as a hint to the film's intent but the ambition of the filmmakers. While I don't personally believe the film reaches the level of sophistication (and impenetrability) of James Joyce, the psychological catastrophe showcased in the film is no less devastating and brilliant to behold. Melancholic, fatalistic yet sweetened with unexpected mirth, Inside Llewyn Davis is further proof that the Coen Brothers are master storytellers.

Final Grade: B+