December 25. 2013
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Directors, writers and producers Joel and Ethan Coen have another hit with ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ their feature film about the struggles of a young folk singer (played
by Oscar Isaac) who navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.
Beautifully Crafted
'Inside Llewyn Davis’ rich in storytelling and music
I suspect it will help one's enjoyment of
"Inside Llewyn Davis" to have an under
standing and appreciation of how the direct-
ing/w riting/producing brothers Joel and
Ethan Coen approach the art of filmmaking.
I'll begin by placing myself quite firmly in
their fan club, which may hurt or help my
credibility depending on where you stand,
but it will help me explain why this belongs
among my favorites of their many wonderful
films.
Although Coen films vary in tone from
broadly comedic (Raising Arizona; O Brother,
Where Art Thou?) to melancholy (A Serious
Man) or bleakly violent (No Country for Old
Men), the brothers ground each in a very
particular time and place in American culture,
and that time and place is rendered with such
specificity and care that it feels like a charac
ter in its own right.
For "Inside Llewyn Davis," that time and
place is the folk music scene of Greenwich
Village in 1961.
As a musician, Llewyn Davis fits into a
very specific space inhabited by young folk
singers who were drawn to a kind of authen
ticity they found in traditional music, just
before singer-songwriters (beginning with
Bob Dylan) took that form to a different and
social-m ovem ent-sized place. Reacting
against the too-sunny music popular during
the Eisenhower era. musicians like Davis
gravitated to solemn old songs that spoke of
toil and struggle, and sought to render them
faithfully.
That background (much of which is cap
tured in a wonderful set of articles on the
film's website) is helpful but not necessary to
appreciating the film. As with most of the
Coens' films (save for The Ladykillers, which
I found largely unwatchable), Inside Llewyn
Davis is packed with rich details and nuance
that deepens with repeat viewings — but all
you really need to know is that this particular
slice of Americana, occurring in a time of
cultural tradition, serves as a rich setting for
a meditation on the tension between authen
ticity (whatever that is) and commercial suc
cess.
Like all the Coens' protagonists, the title
character is flawed and in some ways doomed
— but to me, he is one of their most resonant.
As beautifully realized by Oscar Isaac in his
first major film role, Llewyn Davis is a hand
some and talented purist who is eking out a
meager existence playing in small clubs and
steadily wearing out his welcome on the
couches of friends and acquaintances.
He disdains most other musicians be
cause they don't meet his standards of artis
tic integrity, and is himself the target of
similar disdain by a jazz musician, a beat poet,
continued
on page 15