Of cats & chords... bums & strums!

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2020)

You don't have to be a musician to enjoy this film, but I am and it hit me hard!
For every Bob Dylan, or Elvis, or Beatles, or Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, etc. there are many hundreds/thousands of 'hopefuls'. This is the story of one...
The music is just a part, but it is excellent, and Oscar Isaac plays & sings very well. He showed his real depth as an actor (and musician too!) The film is set in 1961 and was like watching the world of New York, etc., thru a time-machine lens... Oh, God Bless! the Coen Brothers for making films like this that touch the Heart and Funny Bone. To me they are National Treasures and have my deepest admiration and gratitude. Good Work, Boys!!!
The main title character, played excellently by Oscar Isaac, is quite pathetic at times, but has a real passion for his 'Life's Work' of writing and playing folk songs. But how he treats his friends, others and himself (and cats), says more than his music ever does. He is really the 'walking wounded' ever since his singing partner had died by suicide. He appears to just muddle forward in life?
It seemed to me that he lived up to that expression of "Being one's own worst enemy", as he insults or says mean things to all those who try to help him, or those that care and have been closest to him, or even made love to him (Jean).
The scene where he played a song to his father (who has dementia, and does not talk?) was very moving, and will hit anyone that has an old parent or known someone with a similar situation. And the plotline about the orange cat really got to me, as a cat lover. When Llewyn abandons the old man (John Goodman) and the orange cat in the car by the side of the road, it was a heart-rending scene, and what happened later when he encounters that cat again on the road. Why does he not help others more? Maybe he feels he is of no use, except for his music. And at the end, he seems to abandon any hope for that as well?
As a struggling songwriter/musician myself, this film really connected with me.
I watched it three times, after getting the DVD, and will watch it quite often... This is a very rich story, of a time in America that had it's own unique magic, when the Space Race had just begun, and JFK was still alive (and the American Dream too!) And it's a film to make you root for an anti-social but likeable anti-hero. For Llewyn isn't really a bum with a guitar, nor is he much different than any of us... He just needs to care a bit more about others & himself... and cats!