An Odyssey for Today

Rating: 9/10 (12 September 2019)

With its music and appealing stars, it's at once one the Coens' most accessible and most complex, layered films.
The plot is a kind of Odyssey - 'coming home' - about a couple of strays. The songs are more than mere decorations amidst the gauzy photography, they are windows into Llewyn's soul.
It's also one of the Coens' most personal works. If Llewyn is the cat, he is also a stand in for the Coens: art as self-expression v. art as a way to pay the bills; the fear of selling out v. the yearning to connect with people: . . . .in the end, too, it's an attempt to do with film what 'Young Bob' exemplifies in music: making something new and relevant out of classical materials.
Fwiw, the part where Llewyn's partner Mikey jumps off the George Washington Bridge probably echoes an incident in the news around the time of the film. A student at Columbia leaped to his death after being ridiculed on social media when he made sexual advances to and was brusquely rejected by his male roommate.