Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Review

 

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Inside Llewyn Davis follows struggling folk singer Llewyn Davis along his own personal odyssey from Greenwich Village to Chicago, & back again.

Out of all of the Coen Brothers works, this is their most intimate and heartfelt picture. Set in the folk scene of NYC in 1961, we see a couch surfing Llewyn struggle to find his one big break following the suicide of his partner. Llewyn is a nihilist without purpose or motivation outside of music, and even within that, he comes to despise folk music for its inability to create success. The whole film, we see him struggle to make a name for himself and move on from his past in the Village, but upon getting out, it was all in vain, sending him right back to where he began at the start of the movie, playing the same shitty bar, the same music, and no better than he was a week prior. He stays stuck in his own personal purgatory, never improving, but constantly on the mend of his life.

The music of the film really encapsulates the tone, as well as Llewyn as a person; wanting to branch out, but always reverting to the past, much like the nature of folk music as a whole.
The ending is also fantastic. After another show and another back alley beating, a young Bob Dylan takes the stage, a metaphor for the changing times, where folk will finally take off, leaving Llewyn behind, and moving forward with a new crop of the likes of Dylan. It’s heartbreaking, signaling a musical revolution the likes that Llewyn wasn’t able to usher, but gets to witness first hand.
Also a wonderful cast that includes Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver, Carey Mulligan, & Oscar Isaac. Isaac is so great, capturing his nihilism but extreme likability as he represents the struggling artist in all of us.

Directed by the Coen Brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis is a story of Llewyn and his place within the folk revolution in the 60s, seeing himself at the heart, but never amounting to anything. It’s the relationships he makes along his journey however that help him find his place in the world, as on the surface they don’t amount to much outside of a couch to sleep on, but the love of those people will live on long after his music.

9.2/10