It seemed like time for a new Cohen Brothers movie...Inside Llewyn Davis is out. A fictional also-ran in the early 60's NYC folk scene, Llewyn is a disaster both for himself and for his supporters. Couch surfing his way around Greenwich Village, he loses one friend's cat, gets blamed for the surprise pregnancy of a friend's wayward wife and misses one chance at music success after another.
Reading into who the folk singers were in real life, Llewyn misses two chances to be in Peter, Paul and Mary, passes up on the Clancy Brothers, the Garfunkle to his Simon commits suicide, and eventually he watches a young "Bob" be a hit at the Gaslight. He's not a bad guy but he's completely self-absorbed and clueless, wandering the streets of New York in the dead of winter with no coat, a guitar and a cat. He goes on a road trip with a Dean Moriarty-like character, and, with John Goodman as a moribund jazz fan who hates folk music.
Oscar Issac is great as Davis, as is Carey Mulligan as his pregnant female friend. Justin Timberlake has a small part (he really is excellent in comedy) and SNL alumnus Garrett Hedlund does a good "Johnny 5" (the Moriarty character). As always, there's a lot going on in a Cohen Bros film. This isn't a big laugh film but a rather dark and somewhat dreary comedy that gets its force from just how dysfunctional Davis is...a wandering disaster. In case you wonder who might be the model for Davis, it's worth noting that there was an early 60's album entitled Inside Dave Van Ronk.
Inside Llewyn Davis - Red Band Trailer (Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman) - YouTube
