Inside Llewyn Davis

Finally, an actual review about an actual movie right? Inside Llewyn Davis is a film by the Cohen brothers, premiered in 2013 at the Cannes film festival and won the Grand Prix du Festival. The film stars Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis, a struggling folk musician living in New York's Greenwich Village, and attempting to make it big in the music industry. Carey Mulligan stars as his friend and former lover, Justin Timberlake as her husband and F Murray Abraham as a music executive.

Oscar Isaac is Llewyn Davis, a young folk artist who has released an album, which has failed and has nowhere permanent to live, he ends up shifting between friends sleeping on couches and on floors, and hitchhiking to Chicago to meet with a record executive. Llewyn Davis used to be a member of a duo, with his best friend with whom he released an album, however his friend committed suicide, and he now has to try to make it as a solo artist, Llewyn Davis is a man who lives without consequence, and who doesn't think about the future, his life is lived on a day to day basis, and thus the film has a meandering structure, with no real plot.

The film, being about folk musicians features plenty of music, and the films music was produced by T Bone Burnett, the man who made Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon sing, and who won an academy award for his work on the film Crazy Heart. The music in the film is fantastic, and is mostly constituted of covers of old, and mostly little known music. Part of the film features around The Gaslight Cafe, a Greenwich Village bar known for it's music scene, and it's discovery of artists such as Bob Dylan.

The film features a nonlinear plot, however one won't know that it is nonlinear until the end, the only thing that tells us that the plot is linear is the appearance of a cat that Davis picks up, the film opens with Llewyn Davis playing the gaslight, and then eventually shows us the week leading up to this point, however the film makes no attempt to iron out the plot and tell us where we are, it instead contents to simply allow us to work it out. This is a kind of audience respect that few contemporary films have, as most seem to incorrectly or not assume that their audiences are morons.

Oscar Isaac is fantastic in the title role, he carries the weight of the whole film, and manages to show us inside someone who is complex, conflicted and mourning. Llewyn Davis is a man who cannot look past his own self importance and who despite desperately trying to make it in the music industry, isn't willing to sacrifice his musical integrity in order to make it big. Isaac is really likeable in the title role, and we feel his pain as we rejoice with his triumphs. F Murray Abraham also has a bit part as a record executive. It is fantastic to see Abraham in a feature film again, after having been absent for so long, and although his part is small, it is entertaining.

Overall i really enjoyed this film, despite the film not really going anywhere, it is a fun journey nonetheless, and in this case, the journey is not really external, but internal, it is not the characters on screen who change, they are exactly the same at the end as they were at the beginning, it is more our perception of them that changes, and as we come to understand why they are the way they are, we understand who they are. Wonderfully shot and beautifully acted, Inside Llewyn Davis is a powerful character study, and a harrowing portrait of the hardships of the 1960's music scene. Rating: A

Jean: I should have had you wear a double condoms. You should be wearing condom on condom and then wrap it in electrical tape.