Review of Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) by Zeevcat — 14 Jan 2014

Egads. Has anyone who was alive during the musical culture of the early 1960s seen this movie and reviewed it positively? It is stultifying. Llewyn is like the walking dead, surly-faced, untalented, and really boring.

His so-called audition in Chicago is ridiculous, as if the writer/musician "inside" him skipped town. All the songs (with the exception of the one performed by Justin Timberlake in the Columbia Records studio) are the same monotonous tempo as if all the metronomes in the world were set at 15 beats per minute.

Could we have seen any other facial expression on the guy except for the permanent look of pain and suffering? I was in the Village during the Beatnik era and remember it so differently. Did the Coen Brothers talk to anyone who was there? Dave Van Ronk's book about his life and times was allegedly an inspiration, but did they actually read it? This did not approximate the Mayor of MacDougal Street energy and spirit, but rather the drab life of an Accountant of MacDougal Street.

A huge disappointment after hearing all the hype. Llewyn Davis proves himself a small, petty, uncaring (never once did he stroke those poor cats) man. The only satisfying moment in the film for me was the end, when he gets his comeuppance.