Review of Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) by Folkchick — 25 Dec 2013

This film was supposedly "inspired" by the hilarious book "The Mayor Of MacDougal Street" by Dave Van Ronk, the larger-than-life Greenwich Village folk legend. Somehow, against all odds, the Coen Bros managed to create a dull, plodding, joyless, pointless film. The only good that can come from this movie is the spotlight shining on the late great Dave Van Ronk and re-introducing his work to the world.

If you go see this film keep in mind that that Coens got everything wrong the folk scene was energetic, fun, lively, bursting with life, and the best of the singer/songwriters were very supportive of each other. It was Dave Van Ronk who first said: "Never root against your competitor if what they are doing is good music. When music of quality sells it's good for all of us." He also said, "Honesty can be the cruelest game of all. Not only can someone hurt you and hurt you to the bone they can feel self righteous about it at the same time." And this: "Never make the mistake of thinking someone you don't like, likes you." (You have to think about that for a second).

You'd never imagine anything like that coming out of the mouth of Llewyn Davis.

You can probably guess that I knew Van Ronk, and like many of my compatriots, am baffled how such a bleak film sprang from such brilliantly witty source material. They should have thought twice about using Dave Van Ronk's name to give this film a sort of street cred. There's too many of us out here who see how false this film rings, and because of our love and reverence for the man, feel compelled to speak up on his behalf.