The latest Coen Brothers movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, is music-centered like the pair’s 2000 classic Oh Brother Where Out Thou? but without the bluegrass. Instead, the film uses the folk music scene in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961 as the backdrop for the foibles of small-time recording artist.
A regular at the Gaslight Café in the heart of the Village, the bearded and tragic Llewyn Davis (played by newcomer Oscar Isaac) is a fantastic singer/songwriter, but he’s an even greater jerk to his friends, lovers, relatives and the Beatnik-y wanderers that cross his path. Davis sleeps with another man’s woman (Jean, played with fury by Carey Mulligan) and gets her pregnant. He curses in front of his young nephew and mercilessly haggles sweet old folkie singers that were nerdy even by 1961 standards. As we learn more about Davis in the eight days of his life depicted in the film, we come to understand where some of his bitterness derives from.
On the positive side, he cares for a mischievous cat, sings to his catatonic, institutionalized father, and sincerely tells the married woman he slept with he loves her. But mostly Davis makes bad choices and suffers.
Other than the expected coffee, cigarettes and booze consumed by the main characters, the movie doesn’t present any scenes with marijuana, even though it was somewhat prevalent at the time. The only drugs in the film are taken by Roland (John Goodman), a hugely overweight jazz saxophonist who can barely walk with two canes, spews barbed prophesies at Davis, and shoots up heroin, insulin or whatever in rest stop bathrooms as they drive to Chicago.
Davis leaves Roland unconscious and alone in the back of the car by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere after their driver gets hauled away by a zealous cop. We never see Roland again - one of many unanswered questions in the life of Llewyn Davis, the folk singer who never made it big.
Although there’s a fair amount of dialog, about half of the movie is taken up by heartfelt folk songs, sung live and bravely by a variety of artists, such as the hilarious “Please Mr. Kennedy” by Jim, a folk singer ably portrayed by Justin Timberlake.
It’s understandable that folk got crushed by rock as the youthful music of choice from the '60s onward. It was just too gentle for the tumultuous times ahead. While the film’s music producer T-Bone Burnett unearthes plenty of poetic, sincere, earnest and artistic tunes, the genre proves to be tedious at times.
Still, plenty of big-name musicians have gotten behind a bit of a folkie revival around the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack. A documentary currently airing on Showtime - Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Llewyn Davis - centers on a four-hour concert in New York City’s Town Hall with participation by Marcus Mumford, Joan Baez, Jack White and Patti Smith.
Just as O Brother Where Are Thou? represented The Odyssey by Homer, Inside Llewn Davis channels another major book, Ulysses - there are a few hints the Coen Brothers may have had the James Joyce classic in mind. But it’s the music that really takes over. While the film intentionally avoids any kind of happy ending, it's creating a buzz around folk music once again.
At the end, Davis barely turns around when the young Bob Dylan - seen only in shadow - takes the stage on the night the former Robert Zimmerman got discovered.
The Guatemalan-born Isaac, who does his own singing, delivers a solid performance loosely modeled after Village folkie Dave Van Ronk, whose song "Green, Green Rocky Road" is featured on the soundtrack. Isaac may emerge at least as the next Vincent Gallo, who rose to fame on the indie circuit with the 1998 film, Buffalo 66.
Inside Llewyn Davis offers moments of tenderness, comedy and good music, but falls short of any big statements other than it’s really hard to make it as a folkie, life sucks at times and some musicians are dicks. And that we already knew.
