Definitely made for the critics but misses its mark with me

Rating: 5/10 (19 February 2014)

Something about Inside Llewyn Davis appealed to me. I saw a few trailers and I was actually really excited about it. I knew it would be quirky, maybe a little bizarre and certainly anything but mainstream. I was okay with that. I know that the Coen Brothers are often an acquired taste but they have an absolutely distinct style that I have enjoyed before. So I suppose my expectations were reasonably high. Simply put, I was let down. The film tries to show us a week in the life of a struggling musician in the Greenwich Village circa 1961. The biggest issue I found with the film is everyone is so damn miserable and unlikable and that especially goes for our main character. How can you care or be intrigued by a guy who is an absolutely selfish deplorable and miserable all the time. Then he visits his close friends who are also selfish, deplorable and miserable and then you get a little folk song here and there. It was extremely disappointing. Its a bizarre little adventure and parts of it were reasonably entertaining but it continually falls apart. The music (which should be the backbone to this film) is haunting and lovely but just when you start to get involved in the music, it ends and there simply isn't enough of it. Why do we invest time into a struggling musician who is a horrible person and hates his own existence?
There is certainly nothing wrong with the performances in the film. Oscar Isaac is our title character and he does the role well. The character is simply awful and unlikable and he does that well. I really wanted to see him find some redemption and it feels like its moving towards that but then the film ends...in the most sudden and abrupt way I have ever seen. Still Isaac is fine in a poorly written role. Carey Mulligan is also good at being a really awful human being. The entire story of their brief romance and pregnancy is ridiculous and their hateful, spite filled banter makes no sense. Her completely misdirected anger is irritating and her character is literally a bitch. I don't know what they were aiming for with her but she is awful but Mulligan plays that awful person well. Supporting cast are all decent and most of them have very small brief but important roles. Some worth mentioning are Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett, Adam Driver and Garrett Hedlund. Also honourable mention to those darn cats that he chases all over.
I understand that this is meant heart and soul to be an art-house film and I'm okay with that. But I have a problem with film makers specifically go out of their way to be bizarre, artsy and ambiguous. Sometimes its nice to not have to decipher every single scene in the film. What does the cat mean? What does the music mean? What is the meaning of his life? Its okay to ask these questions but the entire backbone of the film are these ambiguous questions. If you look below at the IMDb threads 99% of them start with "What ___ means..." "Deciphering the cat..." Sometimes that isn't enjoyable. Sometimes you just want an entertaining, nice story. Parts of this show some remnants of being an interesting quirky little comedy but then it quickly falls apart into trying to be deliberately artistic. It is what it is and some people (mostly critics) seem to adore it. I personally think it was a disappointing experience at best. Did not fulfil my expectations. 5.5/10