Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it's a folk song.”

            At the time of this writing it is award season and I try to follow who is nominated and who wins. I watched the Golden Globes, actually I recorded it so I could get through all the commercials and insufferable speeches and corny acts, and the movie Inside Llewyn Davis was nominated. I heard about all last year from certain other blogs I follow and I was interested in seeing. I heard it was about the folk scene in the early 1960s around the time Bob Dylan was starting out and I have just started to listen to Dylan’s material. I also wanted to see after I realized that Oscar Isaac is in a movie I like and I wanted to see what else he could do.

            Llewyn Davis (Isaac) is a folk singer in New York City in 1961. He does not have his own apartment he goes from friend to friend staying with them until he has to leave. Nothing in Llewyn’s life happens for the better. He used to be in a duo with his friend Mike Timlin, an old girlfriend named Jean (Carey Mulligan) ferociously hates him with the utmost passion, and his new record is going nowhere and he has no money.

            Llewyn manages to travel all the way out to Chicago to try to get a contract with a folk music manager but when he gets there the manager tells Llewyn he is not a solo artist he should do harmonies in group. Llewyn does not even fight he gives up and goes back to New York. When he gets back to the city he tries to get back into the Merchant Marines and that even goes wrong because his sister threw away his papers and he cannot get his $148 in dues back.

            I thought the story was interesting because everything that happened to Llewyn was mostly of his own making. He could have turned so many things around had he fought for them and was not so stubborn and he just did not do that he gave up. Llewyn did not want to conform he wanted to do things his own way without thinking of anyone and that just backfired in his face in the end. You want Llewyn to make it but he screws up himself. If it had been the forces around him that were holding him back then maybe I would have been a bit more sympathetic towards him. Llewyn I think is a character we can relate to, to some degree. There were plenty of times in my life when I just let people walk all over me and did not fight back and let them think what they wanted about me. It was always a bitter lesson to learn but once you fight back you feel great. Maybe if Llewyn fought back a few times he would not have had such a rough time.

            Inside Lleywn Davis was a good movie. I liked how the main characters were not really likable they were real brutally honest people. The reality of the characters was hard for me to see because we are brought up on good honest fictional characters that always see their happy ending. I like squirming a bit with movies I hope more movies can make more realistic brutally honest characters. Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Justin Timberlake gave great performances. I loved Carey Mulligan she was awesome being this annoyingly angry person. I am glad Oscar Isaac is getting some recognition I hope it leads to more movies for him he is a very good actor. Joel and Ethan Cohen did a great job directing this film. You can feel every emotion of all the characters and all their desperation. The cinematography was really good it also captured the despair and also the depression of the characters. I appreciate how different Inside Llewyn Davis is and its story but it is only worth watching at least once.