Vivid Recreation of a Moment in American Popular Culture

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2014)

Set in Greenwich Village in 1961, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS dramatizes the life of the eponymous hero (Oscar Isaac), who tries to carve out a career as a solo folk singer after his partner commits suicide. The film vividly recreates the atmosphere of the Gaslight Cafe, a real-life venue that opened in 1958 and closed in 1971, where acts such as Bob Dylan, Bill Cosby, and Luke Faust performed. The Café attracted high- profile patrons: Jimi Hendrix was known to visit one night. Llewyn is never going to be that popular; but we have to admire his spirit as he tries his best, despite numerous obstacles placed in his way. The 1961 setting is significant: the Coen Brothers' film recreates a significant moment in American popular culture when people broke free of their conservative shackles and began to express themselves in much more basic terms. Politics became a legitimate subject for popular music, rather than the anodyne lyrics characteristic of many chart-topping hits of the late Fifties. Llewyn tries his best to emphasize the significance of his songs, but no one appears to listen to him. The film suggests that the music business was a cut-throat world, in which talent went unrecognized and agents only promoted the tried and tested, rather than the experimental. This is brought out in a significant exchange where Llewyn travels to Chicago, only to be rebuffed by the seedy-looking Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). The film is full of significant moments and quirky casting: I particularly admired the casting of Justin Timberlake as Jim, another would-be folk musician who tries to change his name to guarantee success, but ends up on the musical scrapheap, just like Llewyn. Deliberately shot in low-key color, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS befits repeated viewings, in order to make sense of its multi- leveled structure. Potentially a contemporary classic.