Inside Llewyn Davis

Plot synopsis:
In February 1961, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer (previously a merchant marine) in New York City's Greenwich Village. His musical partner, Mike, has committed suicide; Llewyn's recent solo album Inside Llewyn Davis is not selling; he has no money and is sleeping on the couches of friends and acquaintances.
Llewyn performs in the Gaslight Cafe ("Hang Me, Oh Hang Me"), and club owner Pappi (Max Casella) tells him someone is waiting for him. Outside, a shadowy man in a suit beats Llewyn for having heckled a performance at the venue the previous night.Llewyn sleeps at the Upper West Side apartment of his older friends the Gorfeins. The next morning, he listens to one track from his and Mike's album "If We Had Wings" ("Dink's Song", not to be confused with another traditional ballad, "Fare Thee Well (Ten Thousand Miles)").[6] When Llewyn leaves the apartment, the Gorfeins' orange tabby cat (a male) gets locked out. Llewyn takes the cat to the West Village apartment of his friends Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan). Llewyn visits his manager, who explains that Llewyn's album is not selling, but claims he sent a copy to Chicago producer Bud Grossman (a character based on impresario Albert Grossman).Jean secretly tells Llewyn she is pregnant, and fearing that she was impregnated by Llewyn instead of Jim, asks him to pay for an abortion. The three friends attend the Gaslight Cafe. Llewyn unsuccessfully asks Jim for money. Jim, Jean, and their guest Troy Nelson (Stark Sands) perform "Five Hundred Miles". The next morning, it seems that the Gorfeins' cat escapes again.Llewyn visits his sister in Woodside, Queens, hoping to borrow money, and tells her to throw out a box of his papers. On Jim's invitation, Llewyn, as part of the "John Glenn Singers", records a novelty song with Jim and Al Cody (Adam Driver), "Please Mr. Kennedy". Llewyn needs money immediately and agrees to $200, with no royalties.
At the gynecologist's office, Llewyn sets up Jean's appointment. The doctor says that two years previously, Llewyn had paid in advance for another woman who then decided to keep the baby and moved to Akron. Llewyn and Jean argue about his lack of direction. On the street Llewyn grabs what appears to be the Gorfeins' orange cat; that evening he takes the cat back, and is invited in to have dinner. He is rude the Gorfeins' guests and when asked to play after dinner reluctantly starts playing "Fare Thee Well". Mrs. Gorfein starts to sing the harmony -- which was Mike's part -- but Llewyn snaps, insulting the Gorfeins and their guests. Mrs. Gorfein leaves the table crying, coming back when she discovers that the orange cat is not theirs; Llewyn takes the cat and leaves.Llewyn rides with two musicians driving to Chicago: the laconic Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund), a beat poet, and the disagreeable Roland Turner (John Goodman), a jazz musician. Roland insults Llewyn: demeaning folk music, making fun of his name, and ridiculing a grown man traveling with a cat. Later Llewyn plays his guitar ("Green, Green Rocky Road"). At a roadside restaurant, Roland collapses from a heroin overdose in the bathroom. The three continue, eventually stopping on the side of the highway that night to rest. When a police officer tells them to move on, Johnny resists and is arrested. Left without the keys, Llewyn abandons the car, with the cat and the unconscious Roland inside.In Chicago, Llewyn seeks out Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham), who says he never received a copy of Llewyn's record, but agrees to an audition. Llewyn plays "The Death of Queen Jane"; Grossman is not encouraging.
Llewyn hitchhikes back to New York and hits what may be yet another or perhaps the same orange cat with the car he is driving. He considers briefly detouring to see his son in Akron. Back in New York he pays $148 to rejoin the merchant marines. He also visits his ailing father, singing him "The Shoals of Herring". Llewyn then starts to say goodbye to Jean; she tells him that Pappi will let him play at the Gaslight again. Llewyn searches for his shipping license required to ship out but it was in the box his sister threw out. The union office can issue a new license, but at a price that Llewyn cannot now afford.At the Gaslight, an Irish quartet performs "The Auld Triangle". Pappi states that he had sex with Jean, suggesting that he pressures female performers he finds attractive to do so in order to perform at the Gaslight. Llewyn becomes upset and loudly heckles an older woman playing "The Storms Are On the Ocean". He is thrown out and goes to the Gorfeins' apartment. They graciously welcome him; he is amazed to see that their orange cat Ulysses found his way home, arriving the previous day.The next morning is nearly identical to his stay at the Gorfeins' at the beginning of the film, although this time he blocks the cat from escaping. On the street he gazes at a poster for The Incredible Journey, wondering about all his sightings of an orange cat.He performs at the Gaslight, singing "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" and finishing with a raw, emotional solo performance of "If I Had Wings". Pappi teases him about his heckling the previous evening and tells him that a friend is waiting outside. As Llewyn leaves the building, a young Bob Dylan takes the stage and begins to sing. Behind the Gaslight, Llewyn is confronted by a shadowy man in a suit, who beats him for rudely heckling the previous night's performance, who he reveals was his wife. Llewyn watches the man get in a taxi, commenting "Au revoir".

Tags: comedy, boring, depressing, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, entertaining, storytelling

Review:
The film opens with a  long scene in which Davis (Oscar Isaac) performs a sad old folk song.
Inside Llewyn Davis is inspired loosely by the story of Dave van Ronk,  a star of the Greenwich Village folk scene around the time of Bob  Dylan's arrival there in 1961.
This is just brilliant filmmaking and the Coens prove once again that they are on top of their game.The film takes place in the course of one week as we follow a struggling folk singer named Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaacs) across Greenwich Village in the winter of 1961.
It features a humanistic, heartfelt performance by Oscar Isaac as the titular folk singer, arresting cinematography, and a sharp, tight-fisted script by the Coen brothers, who also directed.It's Greenwich Village in the early sixties, when folk music was either coming into its own or ready to be usurped by a more mainstream genre.
Yet, I don't think that anyone has ever managed to do what the Coen Brothers have produced with this tragic, comedic, touching piece.Which is to essentially transport you into the grooves of an LP, Inside Llewyn Davies, and bring you a beautifully realised portrayal of the eponymous hero as he trudges his weary way through the greys and greens of Greenwich Village in a cold New York.
And it is so reminiscent of the experience of listening to your favourite vinyl album from track one, side one to the final track of side two, whilst curling up on the couch with a cat in your lap, listening to a selection of melodic, melancholic, traditional, and new folk music.The music binds this movie together and Oscar Issac inhabits the title role in a world-weary way that aches with ennui and longs for something never expressed.
While I appreciated the music, the acting, and the cinematography, I couldn't understand why anyone would love this movie (and I am a big Coen fan).
The Coens have mastered noir so they trot it here with ease: the more this anti-Dude fails to ease into life the more noir anomaly appears around him.Of course the whole point is that it's not such a bad setup; people let him crash in their apartment, a friend finds him a paying gig, somehow he ends up on a car to Chicago where he's offered a job.
In an interview for this film the Coen Brothers talked about the cat in the movie, and how they didn't know what to do with the story, so they threw in a cat.
It is something we can all relate to, a feeling of just wanting to give up, and in this way, the story is a universal one, but then again it's the Coen Brothers, so automatically I know some people might not like it, but I loved it..
It's the Coen Brothers finest film since "Fargo."  Our story begins with a folk singer, Llewyn Davis that has continued to  pursue a music career in 1961 despite being penniless and lacking any  real stability.
Great in roles like "The Social Network" where  his star power doesn't distract from the story at hand, in a Coen  Brothers film, where he sings (in a very current pop way), he becomes a  bit distracting.
Having begun my own professional music career as a 14-year-old, peach-fuzz-cheeked wanna-be folksinger at Café Espresso in Portland, OR, under the mentor-ship of Marc Ellington — who bore more than a passing resemblance to Dave Van Ronk in size, talent, and facial hair — I had a strong personal interest in revisiting the era through the skewered lens of the Bros Coen.This is the same Greenwich Village described by Bob Dylan in his memoir Chronicles — brutally cold and damp, unforgiving in the way only an urban jungle can be.
He's only in it for the money and that's just the way it was.Pappi Corsicato (Max Casella), the owner of the Gaslight Cafe, is thoroughly sleazy and only books women who sleep with him.Al Cody (Adam Driver) is another folk singer who Llewyn crashes with and he might be a likable soul, but he's another nonentity.None of these or the other characters ever really develop a persona other than their surface personalities that just seem to be people you really wouldn't want to hang around with.Music: Some of the songs are quite nice, but what seems to be missing a lot of the time is the joy and passion that one would expect from this music and this time.
But unlike "O Brother, Where Art Thou", "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", or other Coen Brothers films there's really noting about "Inside Llewyn Davis" that's going to make you want to go back and see it over and over again.Buy Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald's "The Mayor Of MacDougal Street" , get some of Dave's albums (especially the new Smithsonian release "Down in Washington Square") and have yourself a really good time!.
The film shows New York folk singer Llewyn Davis, who is a loser in every possible way.
The character of Llewyn Davis is inspired by Dave Van Ronk, a long-forgotten singer who was essential to the New York folk scene.
I suppose there are lots of references to real-life people and events from that scene, but from the Coen Brothers I expected more than just a film for fans of sixties folk music..
Save your money and most importantly your precious time.Inside Llewyn Davis is easily the worst Coen brothers film I have ever seen.
The lead actor is a good actor,assuming the character is suppose to be an un-enjoyable human being.I think the cat might be the only living thing,I would want to spend anytime with in this film.I know you'll do what you want,but you've been gently warned.Again don't believe the hype..
Inside Llewyn Davis is a story about an uninteresting folk singer in the 60s.During the long first act of the movie, he has an uninteresting time in New York so he decides to head out to Chicago.I thought things were going to pick-up at this point as John Goodman tags along for the ride and there are a couple of incidents which I thought would be developed but the journey turns out to be as uninteresting and his subsequent short stay in Chicago.This is a movie you endure because it is a Coen brothers movie so you keep thinking there will eventually be a pay-off especially as it has been rated so highly but there isn't one.The film ends as uninterestingly as it begins, literally.
There are several scenes in the film showing the title character performing well but show me just thirty seconds where Llewyn is depicted as loving - or even liking - music itself.
I love the Coen Brothers for movies like O Brother Where Art Thou and The Big Lebowski and I expected something great from Inside Llewyn Davis, especially because it has received such glowing reviews and has garnered so many award nominations.Inside Llewyn Davis is dreary, pointless, and unpleasant.
John Goodman, for example, is hilarious, but his character is absolutely purposeless.It seems to me that the Coen Brothers wanted to make a movie about folk music and to work with T Bone Burnett again, but lacked the motivation to make anything truly substantive.
But over all, this movie gives lip service to the period and the music culture of the time, and rides mainly on the reputation of the Coen brothers--which is why I wanted to see it.
And the only redeeming quality is the connection felt to this character since you will likely have the life sucked out of you after viewing.Its about a man trying to make it in the folk music scene in new York city.
So the only good thing about this movie even added to the problems since by having a lot of time devoted to playing the complete song; the character development, the story and the substance were all forfeited..
I hate Mulligan as an actress her whole persona (or lack of) gets on my nerves, which worked out for once because she plays a horrid character.The film is very slow with not an awful lot happening and whenever Llewyn sang it didn't excite me it just made me sleepy.
It's a sorbet, giving just enough information to create a curiosity, but insufficient exploration to learn from knowing them.If you love the Coen Brothers and think they're geniuses who can do no wrong - and evidently much of the art-house crowd is precisely that sort of person - please do go find out what is inside Llewyn Davis.
If I hadn't known it was a Coen film, I never would have guessed it aside from having John Goodman in an odd little role and a reference to Ulysses.Llewyn Davis is a struggling fictional folk singer.
The Coen Brothers have impressed me yet again with this dark, emotional, and beautiful comedy-drama about life, love, music, and cats.
In their new film "Inside Llewyn Davis", they tell a story about a young folk singer trying to navigate Greenwich Village in 1961.
No matter how bad his life can get though, Llewyn can always escape into his music.I know why I love a Coen Brother's movie; to me it is just like comfort food.
We follow him over the course of a week which will change his life and see the world around him change too.I really did want to like this film because at times there is a certain beauty to it in the pained reality of its lead character, his situation and his gradual realization of where his life is and where it is going.
Unfortunately this is generally spread very thin and instead of having a structure that supports this, we instead get an episodic approach that makes the "week" feel like months, sees characters just come and go whether we have an interest in them or not and generally doesn't allow you to do more than grasp at metaphors which drift by – usually resulting in the people who love the film the most being those who brought a lot of their own selves to the table, leaving us who look to the film to at least help, feeling left out in the cold and even a little bored.The music is beautiful when it comes and the cinematography is excellent as it captures and shapes the feel of the film and the character – it is bleak to look at for sure, but it is suitable and effective for what the film is.
As often is the case with the Coens, we have characters drifting though the story usually in a colorful fashion – the times it has worked in other films has been frequent but here I didn't think it did at all, with nobody seeming to add much.
But when your friend rejects your advice and starts acting like a jerk around you, you start losing interest in his story.What Coen brothers films are famous for are their side characters.
The main reaction I had was that there were moments I could relate to personally, as a person who suffers from depression, so the screenplay successfully accomplishes it's purpose.This film rates far better than "A Serious Man", another Coen brothers test that does it's best to defy audience's expectations with things like character development, and a traditional ending.
Symilar in tone with "Barton Fink" and "A Serious Man", "Inside Llewyn Davis" stands out with its beautiful visuals and melancholic narrative.The titular character and the glimpse we have in his life remind me of "The Catcher In The Rye"'s Holden Caulfield , but I can't help to compare it to the Norwegian movie "Oslo, August 31st", which shares the same tone but in a slightly more depressive manner.Do not set your expectations high or low, just go into it with a clear head.
It's too bad that "Inside Llewyn Davis" (R, 1:45), a movie about a fictional folk singer in the early 60s doesn't seem to understand that.Oscar Isaac plays the title character, a singer with talent who can't quite catch a break.
By the end of the movie, I felt very connected to Llewyn Davis, having being given a very good feel of his day to day life and how he navigates through all his problems.
Oscar Isaac shines as Llewyn Davis, every subtle choice he makes for the character adds so much depth and he is truly connected from start to finish, he is also joined by a stellar supporting cast that includes Carey Mulligan, John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund.
It's a very sweet Coen Brothers film with some beautiful music and relatable characters.
Life isn't great and we all know it but you carry on and make it great and dream big and work hard till you get to the top That's what we are always told but the truth is it doesn't always workInspired by a true person the movie tells of a week inside the cruel and miserable life of an unknown bar musicianLlewyn Davis was talented and had the potential to be something in the music industry but we all know that it doesn't always work out for a great potential He suffers everyday he doesn't have any money, no place to stay, no work and everything seems to be getting from bad to worse for the young guyThe Coen brothers tell the truth in this that not always you end up being Eminem and their incredible directing brought this deep and dark story to life What is weird about this is the storytelling which is great by the way as it tells of a week only in his life just to know the nature of his life and this isn't your normal protagonist who always end up being a winnerLlewyn Davis isn't someone trying to make it big, he is just trying to make itOscar Isaac just nailed this and the up and rising actor deserved some recognition at least if not an Oscar nomination but as of now he is one of the best rising stars and he is primed to be a 'winner' Oscar nominated actress Carey Mulligan had a brilliant role in this just as she always does The Coens' screenplay make this 'hard' journey lighter with their always not explained black comedyThe best thing about this one is the dark cinematography and music that seems as faded as Llewyn Davis' lifeOverall it was great but the thing is the story it tells it just isn't usually being made to movies maybe because they're trying not to be negative but this isn't negative, it just is life So wake up from your dream and live it as it is and of course dream big but always remember that this could be the outcome This one has been incredibly hailed by critics.
Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of a week in the life of an emotionally drained and struggling folk song musician; he travels down a lonesome path in pursuit of his dreams, and hurts most of the people he comes in contact with.
Alternately, it's about a man and his cat.Like all Coen Brothers films, "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a character study.
After watching the Coen Brother's latest film, Inside Llewyn Davis, I was forced to be left with one question: so what?
The shot-reverse shot can also been seen a lot in this film, which makes it feel very familiar to the Coen's previous works.The music, acting and overall direction is great.
The third act makes up for it though.Overall, I feel like this is a very overlooked film with beautiful music, great screenplay and good performances.
The Coen brother's Inside Llewyn Davis tells the story of its titular character and his woes on the Greenwich Village folk scene during a week in 1961.
Starring Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis, the Coens have fashioned a character whose social inadequacies and inability to communicate are his downfall in life and on the music scene.
Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the Coen brothers finest films to date, which is no mean feat, although it's not their most accessible and, much like it's central character, there's depths to be found despite an aloof nature..
Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer who lost his musical partner Mike to suicide.
The Coen Brothers can be a bit arch at times, and there are hints of clever-clever in Llewyn's (Oscar Isaac) fraught relationship with Jean (Carey Mulligan), but in the end one is left with the sense of a serious and intelligent story with plenty to say about the nature of the music 'biz' back then and now – the Moebius strip narrative structure is there for a reason.The title character is a struggling musician, recently forced to become a solo act following the suicide of his buddy.
I should warn that anyone who doesn't enjoy either slow movies or folk music will probable not like this film as much as the next person.
In true Coen Brothers style, Inside Llewyn Davis is five hundred miles away from their last film, True Grit.
Despite this, Inside Llewyn Davis keeps the quirky and sharp dialogue you are likely to find in any of the Coen's films is still present and correct.
All this makes Inside Llewyn Davis one of the greatest subdued masterpieces ever made and if you only see one Coen Brother's film in your life, make it this one..
Inside Llewyn Davis is the latest offering of the unstoppable Coen brother movie machine, and perhaps the most sophisticated.
Fortunately, the Coens don't have that problem and they're free to share this fascinating idea with us, as if they're accepting how lucky they are in the film industry.Inside Llewyn Davis is like a mix of O Brother Where Art Thou in the focus on music with A Serious Man in its thoughtful deconstruction of conventional storytelling.