Movie review: Inside Llewyn Davis - blowin’ in the wind

Coen Brothers take you on a melancholic trip where folk music, harsh winter and a careless songwriter pull you in.

If there’s anything that makes for a curious watch; it is a film that has music beating inside its heart. Mercifully, Inside Llewyn Davis is exactly that.

Set in New York, circa 1961, it is the story of a struggling folk musician Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) as he tries to make it in the world of melody. The film opens with Davis singing Hang Me, Oh Hang Me and he is captivating from the get go. Making a genuine musician on screen is always tricky business and few get the nuances right. Isaac, however, manages to make you feel the angst of the struggle.



Inside Llewyn Davis is very moody in one sense, but every moment is drenched in a strange sense of melancholia. There is no one to cheer on, not in the traditional sense. Is it painting a glamorous, sex-fueled portrait of Llewyn Davis? Nope.

Instead, it shows him as a talented musician who is also miserable, reckless and selfish. Dark clouds linger as Davis is assaulted after his opening performance in a dark, abandoned alley. He crashes at one friend’s apartment, loses their cat, lies about it, chases another cat and pretends it is the one that belonged to his friends. Issac is masterful as he keeps the character charming, yet never begs for sympathy.

Things pick up pace very quickly as Jean (Carey Mulligan) and Jim (Justin Timberlake) enter the frame. Jean is incredibly mean to Davis and you wonder what he has done. But that plot reveals itself gradually. Their relationship is painful to watch as she calls him a ‘loser’ and much more.

Jim and Jean are also singers, and it gets real for Davis when another folk singer comes about. In a small club with a smaller crowd, he quickly notes when the audience is taking notice of anybody else onstage. It stings him as the crowd cheers on for someone else. Davis, meanwhile, has bigger challenges in his personal life and they add to his story. New York also lacks its signature colour and vibrancy in this period piece. Instead, it is shabby and isolating, cold and distant, exactly the way you want it to be.



Inside Llewyn Davis has been overlooked in most Oscar nominations but will strike all the right notes with its audience. It is not struggling with a haywire script and Isaac is breathtaking in his expression of misery. But here’s the real thing: it is okay to root for someone who is unlikable and with this film, the Coen Brothers send out that message, loud and clear. 

Rating:

Maheen Sabeeh is freelance journalist based
in Karachi. 

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 2^nd, 2014.