INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
US, 2013, 103 minutes, Colour.
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, F. Murray Abraham,
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is the title of the recently-released album of folk songs from the central character, Llewyn Davis. But the film intends for us to go beyond the music, to go exploring inside the character and psyche of Davis, perhaps surprised at some of the things we find there, but also disappointed in that there is not so much to find. And Davis himself, during the film, has to go inside himself, seeking the truth about himself, also disappointed in what he finds, with people thinking that he is a loser. And in many ways, he really is.
This is a film from the Coen Brothers, who have been making excellent films fairly consistently for almost 30 years. With this one they won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes 2013. It has received several further nominations and awards.
The setting is 1961, New York City, the time of the emergence of the folk music that was to characterise the early part of the 1960s, the movement, pushed by the experience of the Vietnam war, which led to many of the popular singers, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary (whose 500 Miles is performed during the film). At the beginning, Davis is singing a ballad, about life, about death, about love, about regrets – with forlorn lyrics. By the end of the film, when he sings the ballad again, we realise and, perhaps, he realises, that he is come full circle but that it is a very narrow circle.
Oscar Isaac has received great praise for his performance. He has a wide range of films behind him, The Nativity Story (as Joseph) Drive, down, and as Jose Ramos Horta in Balibo, but he also has a strong future ahead of him.
Davis wanders New York, gets some small gigs in a club, goes to visit his friends only to find that Jean (Cary Mulligan) is pregnant and he wants to get money to pay for an abortion for her. Her husband, Jim (Justin Timberlake), is unaware of this and offers Davis an opportunity to do a record of a comic song in praise of the President, John F.Kennedy. Davis also catches hospitality from these friends and from a Jewish professor in upper New York City. They help him but he seems unable to help himself.
The film also features the strong presence of a cat, owned by the Professor, but accidentally locked out of his apartment, with the elevator driver refusing to take care of him and Oscar having to carry him around the city, almost losing him in the subway. We focus on the cat, perhaps a symbol of Llewyn Davis himself, getting lost, being found again (or, perhaps, not).
There is also something of the picaresque about Davis’s journey, hitching a ride to Chicago hoping to get some recognition and performance dates, with John Goodman in the back seat, larger-than-life, with sardonic observations and wisecracks about music. In Chicago he meets an entrepreneur, F.Murray Abraham, who does some plain talking to Davis.
The other option that Davis has is to go back to the merchant navy where he is known, especially as the son of his father also in that navy. There seems to be little love lost between father and son and Davis goes wandering again. He is rude in his dealings with others, ridiculing some of the other singers, leading to his being beaten up, twice.
And, at the end, there he is in the same place, singing the same song, the same forlorn lyrics, which have book ended Inside Llewyn Davis as well as his own attempted self-exploration.
The look and the tone of the film are greyish. There is a certain glumness, bleakness about the characters and the story. But this does not mean that this is not a very good film, that it is not an interesting film – rather it is a slice of life, a visit to a particular time and place, a memoir of the music of the period and what it meant. The visit inside Llewyn Davis is both challenging and effective.
1. Acclaim for the film, performances, music? Awards? The work of the Coen brothers? Their perspective on life, comical, bleak?
2. A 1960s story, New York City, music, folk music, its emergence, the songs and their still being well known, the singers, their styles, performances, in clubs, recordings, the audiences, a folk music culture? A tribute to the singers of the period?
3. New York City in the 1960s, the apartments, clubs, the security and insecurity of the singers? Chicago and the venues?
4. The range of music and songs, Oscar Isaac and the opening song, setting the tone, used at the end? The songs throughout the film? Jenny and Jim, the Peter Paul and Mary 500 Miles, the comic song about the Kennedys, the singer from Arkansas? Singers, agents, entrepreneurs, clubs, audiences?
5. Llewyn Davis, Oscar Isaac’s performance? Age, experience, at sea, the reputation of his father and people referring to it and his reactions, later visiting
his father, his father in the home, communicating or not?
6. Llewyn Davis as a singer, his gifts, the gigs, his records, his partner and his suicide, missing him, people telling him he was no good alone? The Chicago entrepreneur telling him he didn’t connect with the audience well? His moving from place to place, crashing in people’s homes, his being bashed outside the club, and this recurring at the end – and the husband of a woman from Arkansas? Going to the apartment of the Professor, interactions with cat, the cat getting out, the lift driver refusing to look after it, on the subway, its getting loose and retrieving it, Jenny and her reaction, Jim as pleasant, Jenny as pregnant, the secret, the paternity, not only Jim and himself but the manager of the club? The issue of abortion, Llewyn finding the money, the doctor and the money on account for the abortion two years earlier, its not happening, the woman and the baby surviving and going back home to Akron? Llewyn and his drifting from place to place, meeting Troy, the military type, Llewyn’s reaction to him? The Peter, Paul and Mary song? Going to the recording, the comic Kennedy song? His life, borrowing cash, going to Chicago, the encounter with Goodman and his chauffeur on the way? The episodes, the collapse in the toilet? In Chicago, the interview with the entrepreneur, his not being hired? Getting the lift home, the young man wanting to be a passenger while Llewyn drove, the turn to Akron, his not following it, hitting the animal on the road? Visiting Jenny, thinking she had the abortion, away for a short amount of time? Going to the Professor, the meal, asking him to sing, his being rude to the professor’s wife, his later return, the apology, going to the club, drinking, insulting the woman singing? Being thrown out? His being bashed? Returning to the club, singing the original song again? How much further had he travelled in his own life?
7. The character of Jenny, her anger with him, her marriage to Jim, loving him, yet the affairs, her pregnancy, the issue of the paternity, singing? Her exasperation?
8. Jim, a nice man, friends with Llewyn, singing, getting him the recording gig? Not suspecting his relationship with Jenny?
9. Goodman, an eccentric character, his chauffeur looking after him, the talk along the way, his cynical remarks, comic remarks, his turn in the toilet and the revival?
10. The entrepreneur in Chicago, the interview, the straight talk, not employing Llewyn?
11. The professor, his wife, nice, friendly, Jewish background, the wife and her talk about Llewyn’s partner and his death, Llewyn’s anger, insulting her, her weeping? His return? His apology, her apology? Then the wrong cat?
12. The important of the cat, comic, getting out of the house, Llewyn actually caring for it, in the street, in the subway, losing it, finding the other cat – and the wrong cat?
13. Troy, the sympathetic young man, the conversation, the military, his getting out, planning a career, his successful singing, Llewyn watching him eat breakfast, going along the street? The praise of Troy by the entrepreneur in Chicago?
14. An immersion in a particular time, place and culture?
