Outside looking in

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2014)

I know nothing about the folk music scene in early 1960s New York, yet I found this film engaging, funny, thought-provoking, and moving. The Coen Brothers can be a bit arch at times, and there are hints of clever-clever in Llewyn's (Oscar Isaac) fraught relationship with Jean (Carey Mulligan), but in the end one is left with the sense of a serious and intelligent story with plenty to say about the nature of the music 'biz' back then and now – the Moebius strip narrative structure is there for a reason.
The title character is a struggling musician, recently forced to become a solo act following the suicide of his buddy. Homeless in winter, despondent about his existence yet passionate about his craft, he sofa-hops his way from day to day. He wants to be taken seriously, but no one seems to understand him, inside or outside The Business.
The Coens lucked out with their lead man. Isaac is a talented musical performer and a subtle actor. From Barton Fink to The Man Who Wasn't There, the brothers like to throw their ostensibly passive protagonist into a Mad Hatter's Tea Party of a world, and obsess over amusing minutiae whilst alluding to vast themes of fate, integrity, and free will. Here, Llewyn is drawn toward his destiny by a runaway cat called Ulysses. Along the way, we encounter a variety of cameos, from the likes of John Goodman (obviously), F. Murray Abraham, and Justin Timberlake. I had the sense that each represented a different aspect of the essential conflict at the heart of Llewyn's journey: between personal integrity and simply making a living.
Crucially, the music is fantastic, and each song – whether a ballad from the man himself, a comedy pop record, or a quartet sea shanty – is given time to play out in full. It never feels like the Coens are sniggering at the perceived quaintness of the period.
On the outside, this film has the qualities of a comedy; but it's an absurdist humour which leaves a tragic aftertaste. Don't expect the screwball madcap of Intolerable Cruelty or Burn After Reading. Inside Llewyn Davis is closer in tone to A Serious Man – except this the more accessible film, and probably the brothers' warmest film to date.