Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Brothers)

[Ezee E]

IMDB

[Boner M]

In news that will come as a shock to everyone, this was great.

[monolith94]

God, I'm so looking forward to this. Huge Dave Van Ronk fan, don't know why my computer doesn't have Sunday Street on it any more. Time to ask my dad if he still has a copy.

[DavidSeven]

Come on, E. Throw up a poster and format your hyperlink, yo.

[Ezee E]

Come on, E. Throw up a poster and format your hyperlink, yo.

Boom.

[wigwam]

:|

[Ezee E]

I watched it a second time. Appreciated it a little more, but my ranking is about the same.

[Izzy Black]

Solid film.

[eternity]

More than most Coen Bros. movies, I could FEEL the formula. Gonna have to sit on this one before I feel comfortable really weighing in.

[Qrazy]

I agree with wigwam. I didn't feel this amounted to much, but here and there I enjoyed it. The stuff about his partner resonated I thought but I wish they'd done more with it. Goodman's response to it and his role in general were a complete waste of time.

[Izzy Black]

I liked that scene with his dad.

[Thirdmango]

I'm on the other side of Qrazy in that the journey to Chicago and a lot of John Goodman's role in all of it was my favorite sequence through the film. However I do agree I wasn't as into it as I have been with most other Coen fare. The Coen's are my favorite directors so I still like it quite a bit, just lower tier Coen for me.

[Watashi]

So fucking good.

[Henry Gale]

This is definitely something. Like A Serious Man or even No Country, it's one experience of how I felt in the moment, and a completely separate other one of how I feel after it. It sticks in my head a day and a half after seeing it with different shades peering over each other and blending together in new ways that now push me towards seeing the big picture it keeps so close to the chest for so much of it.

To try and attempt to boil it down, it's a quiet, nonchalant moral and broadly philosophical human puzzle that doesn't give you the most meaningful instructions of how to piece together until the very end (and even then rightfully leaving much to you), all while gobsmacking you with the new realization that you already had all lot of those pieces to begin with, just without context.

It's perfectly textured, it's hilarious and affable, it's cold, it's bleek, it's beautiful, it's hopeless, and I wouldn't have it any other way because it's entirely its own beast in terms of filmmaking both within and outside the Coens' oeuvre, which might be all you can ask from directors 16 films into their career. And like the three films they made prior to True Grit (which I've still only seen once in the theatre), I can only see myself returning to this again and again and taking something different and more effective every time. It's one of the best of the year, and yet, it purposely doesn't design itself to feel as complete or instantly gratifying as that. The film is its character, and the character isn't one that's easy to sum up in a few lines, as no person or story should be.

**** / 9.1

[Qrazy]

So personally I found the framing device and the au revoir fairly obnoxious but I'm guessing some of you liked it?

[Pop Trash]

Hmm I can't decide if I like this more or less because of its (apparent) slightness.

[Izzy Black]

less

[Ezee E]

How disappointing that there's only 17 posts on this movie.

[Watashi]

Still in limited release, no?

I can't stop thinking about this movie. It's the most sincere and emotionally honest film from the Coens.

[Henry Gale]

Yeah, I gotta say, as much as I might have loved Wolf of Wall Street most from this last stretch of the year, it's Llewyn (which I saw two days earlier) that I can't shake from my mind, despite its calmer, colder, drier demeanor.

It's haunting in a way I didn't expect it to be. The framing device only allowing everything to play in an even more exhilaratingly open-ended and ambiguously beautiful way. How we perceive his performance in the opening seems like it speaks loudly to the way his passion there operates as some sort of peak inevitably segue-ing towards a downfall, but instead, the cyclical nature of the journey we see between doesn't give hope or grief to him once we return. The one thing it really confirms that the only time we may ever him content and vulnerable might be through those songs.

[Stay Puft]

So personally I found the framing device and the au revoir fairly obnoxious but I'm guessing some of you liked it?

I appreciated what they were trying to do. There is no indication that the movie begins at the end, as Llewyn waking up at the Gorfiens could have easily been the following morning. So by the time we wrap around at the end, there's this nice ambiguity at first with the repetition of events; this could be a few nights later, a few nights ago, or really any night of Llewyn's life, as he's caught himself in that existential trap Jean and his sister warn him about (he simply exists). But like many things in this movie, I felt the Coens stumbled through the execution (and the "au revoir" was indeed obnoxious).

I enjoyed the film, but yeah, some scenes are just off. I didn't care for the digression with Goodman and Tron Guy, and I also didn't care for the stuff with the cat, particularly the scene where Llewyn hits it with the car and we see it limping away in the snow (or even when Llewyn finally learns its name, also a little too cute/obnoxious).

I do love how the Coens handled the core of the story, though, with Mike Timlin being the absent heart of the film, and showing how that absence informs Llewyn's existence. Just could have used a few less digressions, I guess.

[Spinal]

I loved every single thing about this movie. It's a painfully accurate portrait of artistic struggle, masterful in both construction and execution. The in-joke casting of F. Murray Abraham is golden, the supporting cast is uniformly excellent and Oscar Isaac is utterly authentic both as a gifted musician and as a down-on-his-luck schlub. Top notch.

[Spinal]

I didn't care for the digression with Goodman and Tron Guy

I'm not sure how this could be characterized as a digression. It speaks to the very core of the film's themes and milieu. You have the brooding, discontented folk singer ... you have the arrogant, snobbish jazz musician ... you have the aloof beat poet who is alternately inarticulate and romantic. Pop music isn't a part of the journey. Pop music is represented on the radio. Pop music has already arrived. And then, of course, you have the cat, which is clearly a symbol for ... something ... you tell me. It's a beautiful allegorical set-up. Remember the reference to The Incredible Journey?

The other thing that scene does is set up the following scene in which Davis auditions. You feel the weight of his journey and the trouble he has gone through to get there, which makes what happens next all the more effective.

[dreamdead]

This is lingering really well. Love the cat and love the overall tone of the film--it feels like a cousin to A Serious Man, which is one of their best.

[Stay Puft]

I'm not sure how this could be characterized as a digression.

Neither am I. Bad choice of words.

Nothing about those scenes was resonating for me, which is what I was trying to get at. Goodman and Tron Guy felt like caricatures in contrast to the depth of Isaac's character/performance. Goodamn's antics were ott and Tron Guy's performance in particular was irksome, like a nails-on-chalkboard B-side to his role in On the Road.

I thought the reference to The Incredible Journey was another dumb/clumsy moment, too, in context. He just stops and stares at a movie poster. Like it's supposed to be profound or resonate or something but it just doesn't. I enjoyed the film a lot but I have to agree with wigwam, eternity, et al, that moments like that just feel forced/formulaic/obvious/whatever.

A Serious Man is a much better film, for my money.