Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis is as pointless as films get. Detailing a week in the life of a mildly talented asshat, this little slice of crap offers almost nothing in the way of joy or inspiration and instead makes us follow the adventures of a loser. A freeloading loser.

If this weren’t a Joel Coen and Ethan Coen film, I’m not sure it would have found American release. I just don’t understand … do you get to the point where your success blinds you completely? Did you catch the folk bug and decide to make a movie, any movie, on the subject?

We’re introduced to Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) in a Manhattan dive bar in 1961, folkin’ it up on stage for his living. Oh, this musical leech is talented – just enough so that he can’t understand there’s no market for him. In succession, he gets beat up in an alley, we learn that his former partner committed suicide and Llewyn has neither money nor prospects. This, of course, has the effect that we feel sorry for the man until we sloooooowly realize he deserves every little bit of the pain he encounters. Llewyn sponges off a friend and leaves the apartment the following morning, accidentally letting the owner’s cat out in the process. Feeling guilty, he takes the cat with him on his travels until he can return it to the owner. Ok, that’s sweet. You have me feeling something positive for Llewyn – and a man on the subway with a cat is adorable. But then he dumps the cat on the first person he can and later loses it once again through carelessness. And, hence, you’ve undermined all the positive feelings I might have for you on the subject.  With each successive frame, I found it increasingly difficult to like this man.

Most music is used in movies to accentuate mood. Inside Llewyn Davis uses it to give our hero the slightest bit of virtue, which in retrospect feels like a cheat.  This small virtue, like the cat episode, disappears just as quickly because Llewyn has no respect for any other folk singer or folk act. In fact, this is what watching Inside Llewyn Davis is like — hmmm, Llewyn Davis is a jerk, is a jerk, shows some strand of humanity, is a jerk … but his sister is awful and his agent is awful and John Goodman is awful and Carey Mulligan — geez, well, Carey has to interrupt her antipathy for a moment so she can be incensed. I suppose this is the way of making Llewyn look downright decent by comparison. And yet, every moment of decency is undermined by jackassery. The more we know about Llewyn Davis, the less we like him. An unmarried, unsupportive guy who’s on a first name basis with an abortion doctor? You don’t have to be pro-life to find that slimy.

The late December release of Inside Llewyn Davis shows exactly why it’s a crime to give awards before public consumption. You win over a few sycophantic critics because you’re the Coens and the playing field is slanted towards the “LOVE” end zone without any real justification.  Sure Joel and Ethan deserve the benefit of the doubt. But this is like putting present day Michael Jordan in the All-Star Game. Your career justifies respect, yes, but your individual efforts in the moment have to speak for themselves and this one sucks. This is the worst Coen brothers film since Barton Fink and it deserved attention just like 50+-year-old Michael Jordan deserves All-Star votes.

You might say a film like Inside Llewyn Davis is the reason I go to so many films in the first place.  At some point in my life, I will run into the guy who thinks this is the gem of the Coen’s impressive oeuvre and I will say, “Ummmmm …. sorry, I beg to differ.” At that point, the next question will be (because it always is), “have you seen it?”  If you haven’t seen it, you lose. It doesn’t matter if the fellow is wrong; that’s a loss. Period. I don’t ever want to lose an argument by default. Yes, I have seen Inside Llewyn Davis, and I found it tedious and pointless, and hated the title character and most of the other characters in the film as well. What you call genius, I will gladly trade for a tenth re-watch of Iron Man 3.

♪Let me tell you a story ‘bout a man named Llewyn on an otherwise run-o-mill week
His art, perhaps, is a minor revelation but his sponging is far from unique
And did he ever return?
Well, of course he returned
Because he doesn’t ever learn
Llewyn lives forever on the couches of “friends”
He’s the man with bridges to burn♫

Rated R, 104 Minutes
D: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
W: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Genre: Loser
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Struggling artists
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Their benefactors

♪Parody inspired by “M.T.A.”