Inside Llewyn Davis

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Just came back from seeing this.

Wow, you know, when you go into a modern Coen bros movie, you don't go in to be told a story...they dont do story, at least most of the time they dont. you go in to a Coens movie to be their uh...well, to be their bitch...and you go in because you like being their bitch.

You don't even go in, you get lassoed in and dumped on a littered street with just a cat to make friends with and then you drift. You drift into a life of bizarre or worn down characters, incidents that don't make a whole lot of sense but you try think there is a meaning to it. You find you dont like any of the characters yet you cant help tag along with them, you laugh at their absurdity, then you get bored of them so you drift onwards to wherever the current takes you next. Then you reach the end of the stream. Sometimes its a waterfall, sometimes its just a plain old riverbank.

You try see purpose in the journey with the characters you meet but then realise, it just is.

You just drift.

Then the Coen bros get bored of you and throw you out their lair knowing you will come back for more.

You feel like a bitch.

But you like being their bitch....right?

Well, ok I best speak for myself before you gang up on my ass. So yeah, embarrassingly, I like being their bitch...sometimes, not always. But if folks love being slapped and played around with in Serious Man, if they love being screwed in No Country for Old Men and if they like that treatment complemented with folk music as in O Brother Where Art Thou,

then folks should go

Inside Llewyn Davis

8.5/10

Edit: how Oscar did not get an Oscar nom is beyond my comprehension. I guess it just is.

[elski]

Inside Llewyn Davis’s Cat Trainer on the Three Tabbies Who Play Ulysses
http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/ulysses- ... ainer.html

[Ms Thrifty]

I can't match Mr Glass's reviewing style, but having also just seen this today, I can agree with the gist of his comments (I think!)

I generally do like the Coen Brothers' work (though didn't see No Country For Old Men - sounded too violent), particularly Burn After Reading and A Serious Man, which I know were two on which some people were less keen. I certainly liked this and loved the music. I'd have liked to see more of some of the other characters too, and to follow them a bit further (John Goodman's excepted), but that's one of the tantalising things about a Coen Brothers film - some people are merely there as adjuncts, foils, etc; their interaction with the main character is limited. Am I the only person to be reminded of Barton Fink (by the tone of the film; the subject of the struggling artist and even the fact that Oscar Isaac looked slightly like John Tuturro)? 8/10 from me.

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

I can't match Mr Glass's reviewing style, but having also just seen this today, I can agree with the gist of his comments (I think!)

I generally do like the Coen Brothers' work (though didn't see No Country For Old Men - sounded too violent), particularly Burn After Reading and A Serious Man, which I know were two on which some people were less keen. I certainly liked this and loved the music. I'd have liked to see more of some of the other characters too, and to follow them a bit further (John Goodman's excepted), but that's one of the tantalising things about a Coen Brothers film - some people are merely there as adjuncts, foils, etc; their interaction with the main character is limited. Am I the only person to be reminded of Barton Fink (by the tone of the film; the subject of the struggling artist and even the fact that Oscar Isaac looked slightly like John Tuturro)? 8/10 from me.

Oh good call on Barton Fink, Ms Thrifty, I didnt think of that until you mentioned it but now I can see he is almost an incarnation of him, an incarnation that hasnt progressed that much! Oh and sorry for my psychotic post, I think I was still under the Coen drug influence. Effects hadnt worn off yet, curse them, I swear they use us for their own sadistic satisfaction. They are infuriating sometimes because they leave you in the lurch yet their films are so addictive and mesmerising and I can never get enough of them :) +1 on not wanting to know more about Goodman's repulsive character, ughh, if anything that was too much! In terms of the other characters, I'd say that was enough tbh. Dont forget as the title suggests (ok there is a double meaning to it), we are inside the head of Llewyn Davis, so we only see things in his perspective.

No Country for Old Men is typical Coens zone out territory but definitely their most intense. I'd love to recommend it to you but yeah there are a few violent bursts sprinkled throughout because it is ultimately the film's theme. Most are suggestive but I do recall a graphic strangulation and a few of bloodied close range head/body shots. If you can embrace yourself for those very short burst moments of violence, the film may be rewarding enough for you. It depends, did you like Fargo? This film is almost like a more matured sequel to it, less wry humour, more contemplative and tense but the violence is a tad more realistic than in Fargo. The film is about an ageing Sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones whose landscape featured face is beautifully framed by the Coens like an eight wonder of the world, a mesmeric work of art!) observing the nature of violence taking an uncontrollable evolutionary step towards violence symbolised by a psychotic hit-man (a most frightening Jared Bardem). Like any Coens film, its a lucid experience but how satisfied you feel after watching it is really up to you. Just thought I give you something to ponder on whether you feel its worth braving the violent outbursts and fill that Coens gap

[raj101]

The Coens brothers prove again that they are good for making what would be a bland story in someone elses hands, into a thing of beauty.

Nothing really much happens in this movie, other than what is basically a job interview. But the Coens remind us in no uncertain terms that it is the journey that is far more interesting than the end result, even though it is this very same drifters philosophy that threatens to encumber Lewelyn's career.

One final note - I am pretty flabberghasted that no one seemed interested in Davies' music - he had an awesome voice, style and prose that literally puts Bob Dylan in the shade, even if it doesn't quite stand up to, say, Leonard Cohen.

[The Sparrow]

Wasn't the whole point of the film, his struggle to become successful? Isn't that what we witnessed?