Coen Brother films are almost always unique, well made and sometimes make you think. When all the ingredients that shape up their worldview work you get brilliance like Raising Arizona or Fargo. When it fails you get a strange head scratcher like O Brother, Where Art Thou, or The Lady Killers. One thing their films never are is boring, that is until now. Who is Inside Llewyn Davis for? I know you shouldn’t ask this question with Coen films, but that’s what I kept thinking while watching it.
When you reach a certain status in Hollywood, you can pretty much get anything made. I can see the pitch now – We want to do a movie about a week in the life of an unlikable 60s folk singer. Actually, when I say it like that, it doesn’t sound as bad. I am a sucker for films about the creative process. Only problem is Davis isn’t a movie about the process, it is a character study.
Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a poor, down on his luck folk singer that spends his evenings playing New York bars and coffee houses. He’s a perpetual sad sack who has alienated all of his friends and is constantly looking for someplace to sleep. Isaac really holds the camera and your attention with a difficult part. I’m not sure if Davis is an anti-hero that you are supposed to root for or not. He’s kind of a jerk to everyone who tries to help him, including his ex-girlfriend Jean (Carey Mulligan) and her boyfriend Jim (Justin Timberlake). Can I say how much I LOVE Mulligan? She’s great in almost everything she does and brings a quiet dignity to Jean. Timberlake is the same in almost every film – the likeable, too cool for school guy. He brings a much-needed feeling of normalcy to the movie.
The film does little to teach you about Folk music and if you are not a fan, this certainly won’t turn you into one. T-Bone Burnett’s soundtrack works pretty well as an genre sampler, but it is so relentlessly depressing that it would never make my daily rotation. It will be criminal if Justin Timberlake’s funny and charming Please Mr. Kennedy gets nominated for an Oscar over the really beautiful but melancholy Fare Thee Well. I can see why it would, but it’d still be a crime.
The film is beautifully filmed and the set decoration is classic minimalistic but the grey color scheme makes everything feel relentlessly depressing. I kept thinking is this guy ever going to be happy? Please make at least one happy thing happen to this guy. Avoid this movie if the holiday season already depresses you. Even though it seems like I’m slamming this movie, I did ultimately like it, you just need to be in a proper frame of mind to view it. Generally speaking I like to leave a theater feeling happy and uplifted, not like I want to shoot myself (metaphorically speaking of course).
Final Grade C
“There Will Be Blood” is NOT a Coen Brother’s film. It’s Paul Thomas Anderson based on the Upton Sinclair novel.
The “Pitch” that you pretended they gave *is* actually the pitch for a character study. Character is always supposed to drive plot, not “process”.
Since you “Generally…like to leave a theater feeling happy and uplifted.” I am wondering why you choose to write as a film critic, especially after mentioning “There Will be Blood” as a brilliant. That’s not exactly a movie that most would consider leaving one “happy and uplifted”.
Fair enough on your points about There Will Be Blood. There is a difference between a movie that is relentlessly depressing but has a message or statement to make about the “human condition” than a film that is just about an unlikeable guy that is just a dick. Even if Llweyn was successful he’d probably still be the way he is.