Review of Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) by Frank R — 06 Apr 2014

The Coen brothers have let me down more often than not over the last decade. (Burn After Reading was the only exception.) Once again, I went into one of their films expecting to like it, knowing full well that the protagonist was meant to be an irritating person.

That's not a deal-breaker with a compelling story, which this film was missing. Often in films like this it's worth just spending a couple hours with interesting or eccentric characters, but these aren't fleshed out enough for us to care.

The folk music performances slow the film down even more; even the person who watched it with (who enjoys folk way more than me) thought the same. The film was 104 minutes (average length), but it felt like over two hours, which is rarely a good thing.