Film Review: Inside Llewyn Davis

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

The recent released musical drama from the Coen brothers is a melancholy look at the 1960's folk scene in Greenwich village in New York. The film centers around fictional folk singer Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) who is partly based on the real singer Dave Van Ronk who wrote an autobiography. All of the songs are sung in full and live with the exception of "The Auld Triangle" at the Gaslight Cafe which is actually lip-synced, the performances are excellent especially by Oscar Isaac who has surprisingly impressive singing voice.

The film shows a week in the life of Llewyn Davis, a folk singer who is struggling after his latest album is bringing him no money and his previous singing partner committed suicide. He lives from day to day sleeping on various people's sofa's and performing in the local folk clubs to earn money, most notably the Gaslight Cafe. He explores many different avenues to try and earn money through his singing all whilst looking after a friend's cat that escaped from their flat when he was letting himself out one morning.

Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) with the cat

In many ways the film is largely plotless, with its ouroboros like structure its more a glimpse into the rather depressing life of a struggling singer regardless of the time or genre of music they perform. The idea for the movie came from a simple yet rather odd question, what if Greenwich Village legend Dave Van Ronk had been beaten up in an alleyway outside Gerdes Folk City in 1961? So from Llewyn Davis being beaten up by a mysterious man for heckling a performer whilst drunk the night before we follow the downbeat and self-pitying Llewyn as he moves around New York searching for his big break and possibly what he feels is missing in his life.

A central theme to the film is a ginger tabby cat that Llewyn looks after and loses which continually re-appears thoughout the movie in different places, was it the same cat that he sees in many different places or different cats that look the same? One theory being that the cat represents Llewyn's dead singing partner Mike, constantly trying to escape the life he had (by committing suicide) with Llewyn chasing him trying to stop him from doing so. With one of the final scenes showing him stopping the cat from escaping the apartment unlike the beginning of the movie which is him severing the ties for being responsible for the cat/Mike.

Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan) sing with Troy Nelson (Stark Sands)

The folky soundtrack is simply beautiful throughout, even with the help of Marcus Mumford who I personally can't stand normally on the track "Fare thee well", its an absolute triumph. Justin Timberlake is clearly a singer based on his career and Carey Mulligan already proved her vocal prowess in the movie Shame with an almost acapella rendition of New York, New York, but Oscar Isaac has lovely smooth voice that is totally befitting of the genre he is performing.

One quite funny scene cuts to the very core of Llewyn's failure in the movie, he is asked to be a session guitarist for Jim at a recording studio for the cheesy song "Please Mr. Kennedy" about an astronaut not wanting to go into outer space. Llewyn mocks the song before realising that Jim wrote it and it quickly shows why he cannot get off the bottom rung of the musical ladder, his strict morals for the music he loves clearly holding him back.

3.5/4 Charmingly melancholy with a beautiful soundtrack