Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis is the latest release from the Cohen brothers and tells the story of a struggling Greenwich village folk musician.  Llewyn Davis’s life is an endless circle of small gigs, crashing on friends floors and disappointment.  His previous musical relationship was cut short when his partner, Mike, committed suicide.  While the people he calls friends are not really his friends and more suffer him because without them he’d be dead.  Reading that back it all sounds rather depressing doesn’t it?

The truth is that’s exactly what it is.  Depressing as hell.  Something that is displayed in every aspect of this movie right down to the way it was shot.  Since it’s release many people have commented that it feels like an old vinyl record and I think that’s the perfect description.  Everything is slightly faded and washed out, an effect that very much reflects the nature of it’s central character.  It’s also set in New York City in the middle of winter and the entire cast spends their time looking like they are on the brink of frostbite.  This all comes together to create a bleak and yet beautiful looking movie.  However, it also has a distancing effect on the audience.  This is a tough film to warm towards and you spend a lot of it struggling to build up a real emotional connection with what is going on.

There is more to this film than the cinematography though and there are some great performances.  Oscar Issac is brilliant as the central character, giving a performance that is at times laugh out loud funny and at others achingly depressing.  Llewyn is not a likeable person.  He screws up everything he touches and is as stubborn as they come.  Yet Issac makes sure that he never stops being interesting and while it’s debatable as to whether we ever truly warm to him, we can’t help but be intrigued as to where his life is taking him.

Meanwhile Carey Mulligan  continues to prove why she is one of the best up and coming actresses in Hollywood as tempestuous love interest Jean Berkey.  Her expletive ridden rants at Llewyn are far from the characters we might be used to seeing her play, but she takes them in her stride and you often wish to join in with her frustration towards this infuriating character.  Beside her Justin Timberlake manages to not be completely awful as her good guy husband Jim and along with Adam Driver provides the funniest moment of the film in the recording of “Please Mr Kennedy”, a rather atrocious novelty track.  Finally John Goodman makes his obligatory Cohen film appearance and joins the long list of people to berate poor Llewyn, a role that you can tell he relishes greatly.

There is also no denying that the music throughout is incredibly well done.  Isaac sang nearly all the songs in the movie live, as well as playing the guitar, and even if his acting hadn’t been up to scratch (which it is) that alone would have made this performance praiseworthy.  Even the ridiculous “Please Mr. Kennedy” deserves respect for managing to be simultaneously as catchy as it is awful.  The other central motif to the film is a cat which pops in and out.  We are never sure whether it’s the same cat or not and that’s something that I’m sure shall be discussed by fans of the movie for years to come, however it is very clear that this is an important cat and what people take from that will probably be entirely down to their own personal views.

I’ve taken absolutely ages to write this review, which I apologise for, because I honestly can’t decide whether I love this film or not.  On one hand it’s a fantastic portrayal of a down on his luck musician desperate to escape the monotony of his life, filled with brilliant music and captivating performances.  On the other hand it’s a cold heartless film that keeps you at arms length and never truly allows you to emotionally connect with what is happening on screen.  The truth is it’s somewhere in the middle, the Cohen’s are still one of the best in the game and Inside Llewyn Davis is a good example of why that is, but for me, it’s not one of their best.