"Inside Llewyn Davis" is a very Coen brothers take on the east coast folk singing scene in 1961, a time when the clean-shaven squareness of the '50's is on the wane, but the creative craziness of the '60's proper had yet to arrive. Titular folk singer and guitarist Llewyn Davis is a classic Coen character in the same line as Barton Fink or Larry Gopnik of "A Serious Man" - a not-so-loveable loser whose level of talent and dedication aren't enough to save him from the obstacles he creates for himself or from the uncaring, fickle world that deems him not quite good enough.
And yet, equally typical of the Coen brothers, while our protagonist's journey is largely a series of setbacks and crises, the writing and direction (both of visuals and of performance) help make what could be quite a bummer compelling, intellectually satisfying and even funny in a dark, skewed, absurdist way.
One of the Coen brothers best choices throughout the film is their exercise of stylistic and narrative restraint, while putting Oscar Isaac's playing, singing and acting front and center. Where many films would fade out from a song in progress to hurry along with the story or play it out over a narrative-forwarding or detail-building montage, the Coen brothers leave their camera squarely on Isaac and let us care about and better understand an often unlikeable, self-destructive man through his music. It's an excellent choice as Isaac plays and sings each song, giving authenticity, soul and even heart to an otherwise downbeat tale.
Just as Isaac completely embodies Llewyn, Carey Mulligan is once again brilliant, beautiful and disappears into the character of Jean, Llewyn's best friend Jim's girl and sometime lay (for whose abortion he pays early in the film). Justin Timberlake in a bit part is also excellent as Jim, a lighter, less pompous singer of earwig novelty pop tune "Please Mr Kennedy" about an astronaut not wanting to be launched into space (it's still going around my brain as I type this). And then there's John Goodman - there's always John Goodman - as a heroin-addicted jazz player who succeeds both in popping Llewyn's balloon of self-seriousness, while Llewyn simultaneously deflates the pretensions of Goodman's character.
The Coens are obsessive about detail and it shines through here, richly recreating the New York (and Chicago) folk scene in Greenwich Village at the time and giving Llewyn's actions and motivations context in the world.
"Inside Llewyn Davis" shows the Coen brothers maturing in their story-telling and stylization, while still making compelling cinema that couldn't really belong to anyone else.
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