film review: inside llewyn davis

Last week, Oscar nominations were revealed, and Inside Llewyn Davis, the latest film from the Coen brothers, was a notable exception for the most publicised gongs. But even though it missed out on the big categories – Best Picture, Director, and Actor – there were nods for Cinematography and Sound Mixing, attesting to its quality. The film has garnered a lot of hype in the last couple of months, and with good reason.

Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of a man who can’t quite get his life together. A folk singer in 1960s New York, Llewyn Davis is talented enough to make it big, but things just never fall into place for him. People around him are getting record deals, including, in a cheekily throwaway scene, Bob Dylan – but he is destined for failure. His bandmate recently committed suicide; he has gotten more than one woman pregnant without creating any lasting relationships; he loses his friend’s cat. Every night he sleeps on a different friend’s couch, and for someone constantly in motion he never really gets anywhere.

Oscar Isaac is compelling in the lead role, equally good at moments of bleakness and comedy. His voice in the several musical numbers rings clear and is not particularly showy, much like this film as a whole. The supporting actors are excellent as well, particularly Carey Mulligan, playing an ex-lover of Llewyn’s with barely-suppressed rage, Justin Timberlake as her sweet but clueless husband, and John Goodman as an enigmatic man Llewyn meets in the back of a car heading to Chicago. The film is quite beautifully shot, with a dark colour palette that is at times reminiscent of film noir.

Llewyn is not a particularly pleasant character. In fact, he doesn’t have many redeeming features at all. In a story such as this, one could expect a scene in which the character has a moment of redemption, a catharsis which will change him and become a turning point for his character. But Joel and Ethan Coen, whose filmography includes such classics as Fargo, No Country for Old Men and The Big Lebowski, are not known for making typical films, and this does not go down that road.

Instead, the story is circular. By the end, Llewyn is back almost where he started. He is probably not going to ever have a great musical career or become a better person. He appears to know this, and yet he keeps playing music anyway. He wants it to be a career, or something transcendent, but it ends up being something he just does, because he has to.

Some have called the film bleak, with its predominantly grey and brown colour scheme and lack of redemption for its lead character. There’s something that you take away from it in the end that is not entirely disheartening, though. Maybe it’s the fact that Llewyn is back where he started, but that things do still continue for him. It might seem unusual, but really, do our lives progress in a linear way, or do we just want them to, to give ourselves the illusion that we are progressing?

So what is the ‘point’ of the film, if there is no clear character or narrative progression by the final scene? New York Times critic A. O. Scott says it best, I think describing what this film might be ‘about’:

We are, as a species, ridiculous: vain, ugly, selfish and self-deluding. But somehow, some of our attempts to take stock of this condition — our songs and stories and moving pictures, old and new — manage to be beautiful, even sublime.

Except I would say that it’s not even about anything sublime. Llewyn Davis is a human being, not a great one or even really a good one, but when he sings, it is impossible to discount his humanity. Llewyn Davis is everyman and who makes bad decisions or is inactive when he should do something. The film is about portraying a human, warts and all.

 

Inside Llewyn Davis is out now in selected cinemas.

 

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