Grim, Depressing and TOTALLY unenjoyable except for the music

Rating: 2/10 (2 September 2014)

I watched this movie because I was a part of the 60's Greenwich Village folk scene and was expecting an enjoyable nostalgic experience. I saw and thoroughly enjoyed Dave Van Ronk many times in many places including the Gaslight cafe. I played in Washington Square park on many Sundays with almost everyone. I am not a fan of the Coen brothers and I know them about as well as they know me. When the movie started with nifty rendition of the well known Van Ronk's Hang me I thought I thought I'd hit the jackpot. Well, nothing was farther from the truth. Although the acting was fine, the plot was so depressing that I actually felt like I was watching a nightmare. No one was happy about anything, no one accomplished anything, it just railed on about the futility of life in general. This movie (again, except for the music) is worse than boring, it's downright depressing and upsetting and detracts from my positive images and memories of the 1960's village scene. I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone enjoyed this movie or gave it a good rating. Both my wife and I left the movie feeling just plain MISERABLE.