Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Country: US/GB/FR
Technical: col 104m
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham
Synopsis:
1961, New York: a folk singer whose partner has killed himself is attempting to go his own way, but finds that life, from his acquaintances' cat to his few remaining family and friends, is turning its back on him, a situation not helped by his increasingly truculent brand of melancholia.
Review:
The Brothers hit the mother lode again with this week in the life an artist, whose talent is never in doubt to us, owing to Isaac's live renditions, with songs delivered in their entirety without recourse to overlay onto the following scene. The film has a cyclic structure thanks to a disguised flashback, but ends with one of those delicious ironies beloved of the makers of Burn after Reading. It also inhabits one of those closed worlds they do so well, such as the Jewish community in A Serious Man, or the bowling fraternity of The Big Lebowski. A standout scene has a trio of musicians perform a song ('Please, Mr Kennedy') that joins that of O Brother, Where Art Thou? in being both hilariously left-field and a great piece of writing and performance in itself. This is not an easy film to get a handle on, or even like perhaps, as evidenced by its neglect at the Oscars, but it settles down and grows on you like a poignant memory.
Country: US/GB/FR
Technical: col 104m
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham
Synopsis:
1961, New York: a folk singer whose partner has killed himself is attempting to go his own way, but finds that life, from his acquaintances' cat to his few remaining family and friends, is turning its back on him, a situation not helped by his increasingly truculent brand of melancholia.
Review:
The Brothers hit the mother lode again with this week in the life an artist, whose talent is never in doubt to us, owing to Isaac's live renditions, with songs delivered in their entirety without recourse to overlay onto the following scene. The film has a cyclic structure thanks to a disguised flashback, but ends with one of those delicious ironies beloved of the makers of Burn after Reading. It also inhabits one of those closed worlds they do so well, such as the Jewish community in A Serious Man, or the bowling fraternity of The Big Lebowski. A standout scene has a trio of musicians perform a song ('Please, Mr Kennedy') that joins that of O Brother, Where Art Thou? in being both hilariously left-field and a great piece of writing and performance in itself. This is not an easy film to get a handle on, or even like perhaps, as evidenced by its neglect at the Oscars, but it settles down and grows on you like a poignant memory.
Country: US/GB/FR
Technical: col 104m
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham
Synopsis:
1961, New York: a folk singer whose partner has killed himself is attempting to go his own way, but finds that life, from his acquaintances' cat to his few remaining family and friends, is turning its back on him, a situation not helped by his increasingly truculent brand of melancholia.
Review:
The Brothers hit the mother lode again with this week in the life an artist, whose talent is never in doubt to us, owing to Isaac's live renditions, with songs delivered in their entirety without recourse to overlay onto the following scene. The film has a cyclic structure thanks to a disguised flashback, but ends with one of those delicious ironies beloved of the makers of Burn after Reading. It also inhabits one of those closed worlds they do so well, such as the Jewish community in A Serious Man, or the bowling fraternity of The Big Lebowski. A standout scene has a trio of musicians perform a song ('Please, Mr Kennedy') that joins that of O Brother, Where Art Thou? in being both hilariously left-field and a great piece of writing and performance in itself. This is not an easy film to get a handle on, or even like perhaps, as evidenced by its neglect at the Oscars, but it settles down and grows on you like a poignant memory.