Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman
Llewyn Davis (Isaac) is a folk singer in the vibrant Greenwich Village scene in the early-60's. Struggling to hit his big break after the death of his collaborator, Mike Timlin (Chris Edridge), Llewyn spends his time performing and living on the couches of his various friends. Hearing about an opportunity to perform in Chicago, Llewyn hits the road with an adventurous cat and leaving behind Jean (Mulligan), a fellow folk-singer made pregnant by him in an adulterous one-night-stand.
Having been several years in the making, Inside Llewyn Davis is a knowing love letter to the Greenwich Village folk scene, brought to life with the distinctive and eccentric wit of the Coen brothers. This time, they are without their usual cinematographer, Roger Deakins, but despite missing his strength the film is still a visual wonder with its own faded and shadowed beauty, bringing the coldness of the winter setting to the fore. The music is a set of wonderfully-realises folk (here played in full numbers rather than brief snippets) from the achingly tender "If I Had Wings" to the lovably goofy, "Please Mr. Kennedy".
Elsewhere, the film seems to be slightly lacking in character (compared with the extremely characterful oeuvre of the Coens' works as a whole) mostly by way of supporting cast usually not lasting the length of the story, but there are entertaining performances to be had. The film may not be on a par with some of the best Coen brothers movies (such as Fargo (1996) or Miller's Crossing (1990)) but time and repeated viewings are often very kind to Ethan and Joel Coen, so this already promising film may yet live on to endure.
Next time, the work of the late Tom Clancy is brought to the screen once more as an unwitting Chris Pine becomes the target of Kenneth Branagh in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
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