One of the Coens Best

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2019)

From the opening moments of the film, Oscar Isaac's performance as Llewyn Davis had my heart aching in the sad beautiful way that only an old folk song can. The pain of a life full of work and hard scrabble effort welled up in my soul like the tears you shed for an old man who dies with an empty bank account and a well worn picture of his long gone sweetheart.
I won't talk too much about the plot of this movie because it is one of those meandering plots that really serves more to explore the character of Llweyn than to entertain or create a tight through line. The film is really more about understanding the soul of folk music and one of the people who makes it.
His frustrations and obstacles are the same as many musicians. He's nomadic, aching from a loss, flat broke most of the time, and seen, by many of the people around him, as a bottom feeder, living off of other people's kindness until he drives them crazy enough to force him to leave. He's a good performer but not a great one and a lot of the time his pain makes him a real jerk to those around him. He's a working artist.
Normally I wouldn't go into such a lengthy description of a character but so much of "Inside Llewyn Davis" is about understanding the place that music holds in Llewyn's life and how he sees the people around him in comparison. The world around him is cold full of people who seem to want to use him for their own purposes then blame him if he asks for anything in return. Even the people who seem to really like him can't help but ask him to basically play impromptu shows in their living room.
Yet his music speaks to them all. They may not know how to capitalize on it and he may not know how to turn his talent into cash but everyone seems to recognize that he has a gift.
Enough about the character (although his complexities could be the topic of several essays.) The rest of the film is a stunning piece of work. The cinematography is subtle at times but not afraid to do its own share of the speaking in the film, alternating between the cold distance of the city of New York and its inhabitants as well as the close hominess of small apartment living rooms with couches that double as beds yet symbolize his vagabond status.
The music is quite simply, some of the best I've ever heard in a film. The soul of the performances is brilliant but the Coens continue to show their deep understanding of relating themes through their films' music rather than just playing nice songs. While Llewyn's music is aching and drawn out like your first high school crush, the music of the other musician's whom he disdains are snappy, calculated, arranged and somewhat robot like. In fact many of the songs not played by him feature countdowns and numbers, making it feel computed by something other than emotion.
While this isn't the Coens' funniest film it certainly has its moments.Even while communicating serious ideas The Coen Bros. never forget that their audience is not a group of masochists who just want to punish themselves with sadness. Even some of the hardest moments of the film elicit guffaws, not because they are jokes, but because the turns are so unexpected, even as they are not usually great moments for Davis.
As in many of the Coens' films, one of the things I find myself loving is their connection to the every-man. When the go to make a movie about a folk singer they don't make it about a famous or successful one. The majority of people work their lives away with recognition only from their family and friends, and even that is sometimes absent.
Though they are famous, they don't seem to have let it remove them from telling of the woes and toil which befall most of the work-a-day folk who live in this world. Those people who may tell a story that makes their friends laugh but would never be a famous stand up comedian, the men and women who build other people homes too lavish to live in themselves, or perhaps the singer who could never sell out a theater but who picks away at a beat up six string and sings with a sadness that causes everyone in the bar to think of those they miss but still love.