Watch and Learn

Rating: 9/10 (23 December 2013)

The thing I liked best about Inside Llewyn Davis is that unlike most movies today, it doesn't put long expositive speeches in the mouths of its characters to explain exactly what's happened in the past, what's happening now, and what's going to happen in the next scene. We get inside Llewyn simply by watching him make his way in the world.
Many reviewers have remarked that Llewyn is his own worst enemy, or that he's an unpleasant character, but if you watch the movie carefully, you'll get an idea of why he is that way, and perhaps even feel a bit of sympathy. The Coens don't come out and tell you about Llewyn's family background, instead showing brief vignettes that allow you to come to your own conclusions about the family dynamic. And if you pay careful attention to what happens before each of Llewyn's outbursts, you'll see that he lashes out because he is hurting. He's yearning for the music to be something that lifts him above the tawdriness and disappointments of everyday life, but trying to make a living at it keeps dragging him down in the mud.
In short,like all art, Inside Llewyn Davis requires you to put some effort into the collaboration, and to think about what you are seeing and what it means. If you are so used to a movie experience in which you are spoon-fed explanations, you may just let the pictures pass by and conclude that there isn't much there. But if you take the trouble to think about why, for example, Llewyn's last version of "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" is so different that the preceding ones, you may start to get inside Llewyn Davis.