Coen Brothers Continue Their Excellence with Oscar Isaac Anchoring

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2014)

It goes without saying that Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, a.k.a. The Coen Brothers, are among the top working filmmakers today. They keep showing us repeatedly why they are among the best and proved it again with their latest flick, Inside Llewyn Davis.
The title character, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a folk singer who is not living an ideal life. Llewyn gets himself gigs every once in a while, he lives in New York City, but his records are not selling, his former singing partner has killed himself, and he is crashing on the couches of his friends since he does not have a home. With all of the troubles Llewyn has going on in his life, he cannot catch a break. His friend Jim (Justin Timberlake) cannot give him money without his wife Jean (Carey Mulligan) finding out. Jean is also pregnant and thinks that the child is Llewyn's. She wants an abortion and for Llewyn to pay for it. Inside Llewyn Davis focuses on one week of the title character's life as he does whatever he can to change his life.
The Coen Brothers are still among the true auteurs out there and still have been doing what they've been doing for 30 years and produce excellent results. Inside Llewyn Davis shows us the Coens have a keen interest in showing us a character who is a loser and make us be interested in this character. As writers, the Coens have crafted a unique story in 1960's New York with quirky characters.
At the front and center of the film is Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis. Isaac is very interesting here in becoming this guy who is having no success as a folk singer. Isaac's strong points in his performance are in making us feel sympathy for a guy who is a loser that can't catch a break. Isaac proves that he can make a great leading man.
The rest of the cast do their contributions nicely. Carey Mulligan is the best of the supporting cast as Jean, Jim's wife and a woman who thinks Llewyn is a scumbag but cares for him too. Justin Timberlake is good here as a Jim, a fellow folk singer who brings on Llewyn for a song he wrote. Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman are also fun in their roles as fellow musicians who are travelling to Chicago and let Llewyn ride with them. F. Murray Abraham even has a nice cameo as the owner of a Chicago venue who gives Llewyn an audition.
The technical aspects of this film are well done, like all Coen Brother films. Oscar winner T-Bone Burnett is the music producer and does a nice job with having the music all fit the film. There is beautiful cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel. Frequent Coen collaborator Jess Gonchor does a nice job with the production design and making the sets feel authentic to the time period. Also involved is another frequent Coen collaborator is costume designer Mary Zophres who does not disappoint here. The other major highlight is "Please Mr. Kennedy", a song in the film that Llewyn contributes to recording.