INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
CBS Films
Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on RottenTomatoes.com
Grade: A-
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Screenwriter: Joel Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, Jeanine Serralles
Screened at: Dolby 24, NYC, 11/18/13
Opens: December 6, 2013
What comes to mind, dear reader, when you hear the term “American Folk Music?” If you’re like the majority of your countrymen, you were either not born during the height of the folk era (1960’s) or too young to have appreciated it or attended a concert. Some of the concerts were held in Carnegie Hall, featuring such greats as Joan Baez while the best listening was from the small clubs in New York’s Greenwich Village. When I heard some months ago that a movie was in production featuring the music of that era, I leaped at the chance to see “Inside Llewyn Davis” and, having achieved this dream, was bowled over in part from the memories of those little clubs around Bleecker and MacDougal Streets such as The Bitter End and Café Wha, but mostly from the Coen Brothers’ array of dry humor better than you’ll find in any other movie this year.
Young people today are so much into acid rock, hard rock, punk, hip-hop and the like that the simple, gentle, soulful tunes of the sixties would not hold their attention. But for a special audience—not exclusively of people whose coming of age took place during the hoped-for greening of America—“Inside Llewyn Davis” offers a gem of satire overlaid with the feeling of loss. The only song that might be familiar to most would be “500 Miles,” which I heard sung many moons ago by Peter, Paul and Mary, lyrics “Lord I’m 500 miles from my home” referring to the singer who is far from home, out of money, and too ashamed to return. This is the overriding theme of the Coen Brothers’ movie, a theme that embraces the loss of love, loss of identity, loss of meaning.
The Coens luck out with the Guatemalan-born, Miami raised actor Oscar Isaac. His character’s name is Welsh. He had a stint in the merchant marine. Now, though, with his guitar resting on his leg, he tries and fails to make it big or have even moderate success in showbiz. We watch the title character’s adventures with several people who for want of a better term are played by character actors like John Goodman, Ethan Philips, Robin Bartlett, Max Casella and Jerry Grayson. Isaac’s Llewyn Davis is in bad shape, bereft of profitable gigs or even a place to sleep, with a bunch of unsold albums staring him in the face. He lacks the money to pay for an abortion sought by Jean, a girlfriend played by the adorable Carey Mulligan, though considering her bohemian life might not be carrying Davis’s kid after all.
As though Davis’s failures in the music biz were not enough, he gets beaten in a dark alley in a scene that frames the movie. He mooches a few nights here and there with friends including a professor, Mitch Gorfein (Ethan Phillips), whose cat he loses and seems to recover and keep for a long ride to Chicago to meet with club owner Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). Grossman notes that “I don’t see money there.” On the way to that failed meeting, he’d have been better off paying for a train if he had the cash and avoiding the biting comments of Roland Turner (John Goodman), the passenger in the back seat who, when not fast asleep, nudges Davis with his cane, comments on his dislike of Welsh rarebit, and wonders whether everything in Wales is sh*t. How should we take Turner’s view in hearing that Davis’s former singing partner threw himself off the George Washington Bridge? According to the back-seat passenger, that’s not at all logical since everyone knows that the Brooklyn Bridge, not the G.W., was made for just those antics.
The soundtrack, which should be right up there for guild awards including an Oscar (no pun intended), was produced by T. Bone Burnett, who has a history with the Coen Brothers. The performers, the music, the spirit of the times, all play together to enable the Coens to convey a quiet movie with more depth of feeling than you’ll find even in the most celebrated indies. Paul Mazursky heralded “Next Stop, Greenwich Village.” That filmmaker would now meet his objective in this sad but lyrical, biting yet sympathetic, portrayal of a singer in his early thirties who convinces us that it’s difficult to make a go with art.
Rated R. 105 minutes © 2013 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B+
Acting – A-
Technical – B+
Overall – A-