Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
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Inside Llewyn Davis Movie Review
Inside Llewyn Davis is a 2013 drama film directed by the Coen brothers and starring Oscar Isaac. It’s one of the brothers’ better and more underrated movies.
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“I don’t see a lot of money here“
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Llewyn Davis, a former merchant marine, is a folk singer from Greenwich Village, New York City. He struggles to maintain his artistic independence against the commercial needs of the music industry. This movie is all about failure, thus it felt different from many other movies about artists. In dismantling the myth of the American Dream, it felt almost anti-American, which I really admired about it. We have seen hundreds of movies where the artist succeeds, but this one is about the rest that just don’t ever succeed, which is literally 99 percent of the people.
Oscar Isaac is so good in the main role and this was actually one of his breakthrough performances. This was before ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Force Awakens’, so this is where we pretty much met the guy for the first time. And he was very good, utterly believable and memorable in the role that is far from likable. The character was a bit annoying at times, but the actor elevated the role quite a bit.
There is a problem in this movie with the supporting characters, all being rushed and underdeveloped. The movie focuses heavily on the titular protagonist that the others were sidelined. Carey Mulligan was wasted on a very poorly written girlfriend character and the drama between the two was uninteresting. F. Murray Abraham delivered that one iconic line from this movie that still sticks with audiences after all these years. And Justin Timberlake is in this movie for some reason, which was odd to witness.
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Inside Llewyn Davis is a highly grounded, melancholic and grim movie and I liked that tone for the most part. The lack of a standard three-act structure only further led to its immense realism. The cinematography is also uniquely subdued while the directing and editing are both excellent. The movie features thought-provoking conversations about failure and success. It’s rare to see a movie from Hollywood that is so real with these themes. It’s flawed and not consistently engaging, but as somebody who isn’t a fan of the Coen brothers, this was surprisingly effective for me.
Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the better and most underrated Coen brothers movies. It has its flaws – the supporting characters are underdeveloped and the pacing is not the greatest – but it features an interesting structure to it, very strong cinematography and a terrific breakthrough turn from Oscar Isaac. It’s a rare Hollywood movie that depicts the life of an artist who never achieves success in his field, which is something that happens to 99 percent of the people, but is almost never depicted on the big screen. It’s a very grounded film.
My Rating – 4
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