A 1960's folk musician, as told through Bronze Age literature

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2016)

For those of you who are considering seeing this movie, a few thoughts:
From my point of view, the user-reviewers who didn't like it missed out on the subtleties and complexities of character and tone. A movie's not obliged to follow the same form as most, or tell a story we've heard before.
There's odd, dry humor that percolates through it, as you might expect from the Coen brothers, but this is their more serious side.
Unlike many of their other movies, this has a more sincere warmth to go with the darkness, the oddness, and the intelligence.
It's a rich, sad, dark winter's tale. It's the kind of stiff drink of storytelling that would not be out of place in the Bible or Gilgamesh or other classic literature. It's about a man stuck in a time and place and manner of being, as he hits up against the limits of what is possible for him, and often is his own worst enemy.
See this when you are in the mood for more nutritious entertainment, and feel free to give yourself just enough distance from the main character that you can have a good look at what makes him human.
The music is great, and it's all live performances.