{"id":17496,"date":"2016-02-05T13:22:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T17:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=17496"},"modified":"2016-02-05T13:23:59","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T17:23:59","slug":"joel-and-ethan-coen-inside-llewyn-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2016\/02\/05\/joel-and-ethan-coen-inside-llewyn-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel and Ethan Coen: Inside Llewyn Davis<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
Inside Llewyn Davis<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\r\nd.\u00a0Joel Coen and Ethan Coen\u00a0(2013)<\/span>\r\nThe Criterion Collection Spine: #794<\/span>\r\nBlu-ray Release Date: January 19, 2016\r\n\r\n<\/span>Screen captures below are taken from The Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc.<\/span><\/pre>\n
I reviewed this film back in April 2014 when I first saw it. Now that it has a Criterion release, which is stacked with exceptional features, I wanted to reprint that review here and take a look at the features on the Criterion Collection release.<\/em><\/p>\n
Inside Llewyn Davis<\/em> (2013) is one of the few movies that I\u2019ve finished and then immediately started watching again. Here, the Coen Brothers have crafted a intimate film about one man\u2019s inability to connect to those around him and his consequent Sisyphean struggle to make any headway in his life.<\/p>\n
\"Inside<\/p>\n
The film begins at Greenwich Village’s famous The Gaslight Caf\u00e9 in\u00a01961, and we\u2019re treated to a performance: folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is singing \u201cHang Me, Oh Hang Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\"Inside<\/p>\n
After the performance the manager tells\u00a0Llewyn he has a friend waiting for him\u00a0outside. A friend? We learn later on that, really, Llewyn doesn\u2019t have any friends, and certainly none that would just be waiting outside. Stepping outside, we see a man in silhouette. Suddenly the realistic smoky light of the performance is replaced by something a bit more stylistic and certainly more threatening. The man gives Llewyn a bit of a beating and walks away.<\/p>\n
In the next scene, Llewyn wakes up at the Gorfein\u2019s (Ethan Phillips and Robin Bartlett), an older,\u00a0academic couple who has befriended Llewyn, probably because of his novelty as a folk singer. Llewyn resents this, though it\u2019s hard to see how he could support himself without their brand of commission (and they are not the only ones of their type who latch on to Llewyn and whom he begrudgingly \u201cperforms\u201d for).\u00a0Llewyn wanders around the Gorfein\u2019s\u00a0apartment in the morning after\u00a0they\u2019ve left; he is obviously alien but enjoying some peace in the moment. When he finally does leave, the Gorfein\u2019s cat slips out the door with him, the door is locked, and now Llewyn is stuck with a cat who will, we see, have his own incredible journey, one perhaps more successful than Llewyn\u2019s.<\/p>\n
I could go through this movie scene by scene, character-by-character\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019d be worth it to me to ruminate that way, and I\u2019d still only scratch the surface\u00a0\u2014 but here I want to reign myself in a bit and focus on the mythic aspects of the film, the aspects that link this film more with Barton Fink<\/em> and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?<\/em><\/p>\n
In many ways, the film is set up as a kind of journey of the soul with parallels in Llewyn\u2019s literal journey around points in Manhattan, to Chicago, and then back to Greenwich Village for the final scene. It\u2019s an odyssey, and as such it\u2019s somewhat episodic as various characters enter and exit Llewyn\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Principally, we meet Jean (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Jim (Justin Timberlake). They are also folk singers, and maybe Llewyn sees them as sell-outs. They have a home<\/em>, after all, that\u00a0he often sleeps in. Perhaps they\u2019ve given up the genuine struggle of the soul, an artistic necessary\u00a0in Llewyn\u2019s estimation, in order to get some material comfort.<\/p>\n
Just after he leaves the Gorfein\u2019s, Llewyn takes the cat to Jean and Jim\u2019s home, just as a safe place. When he goes back to retrieve the cat, Jean is furious. Why\u2019s there a cat here? And, no, Llewyn you cannot sleep here tonight. And, also, I\u2019m pregnant. Jean does not know if Jim or Llewyn is the father. If it\u2019s Jim\u2019s, she wants it. If it\u2019s Llewyn\u2019s, she wants to abort it. Since there is no way of knowing, she feels there is no other alternative but to abort the pregnancy.<\/p>\n
One criticism I\u2019ve heard of the film is that Jean is shrill. There\u2019s no doubt that Jean is absolutely furious with Llewyn. She hates him. But, to me, it appears that it\u2019s a hatred born of love and passion. Jim is a wonderful man, truly generous and kind in every scene we see him in. But perhaps Jean feels more passionately toward Llewyn, definitely in hatred, but also perhaps in love. Her vitriol is directed at Llewyn, but I think it\u2019s all the more intense because she loves him.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, that train has left the station: Jean and Llewyn are not meant to be.\u00a0This is\u00a0underlined nicely in another of the film\u2019s great music scenes, where Jean and Jim sing \u201cFive Hundred\u00a0Miles\u201d:<\/p>\n
If you missed the train I\u2019m on<\/span>
\nYou will know that I am gone<\/span>
\nYou can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles<\/span><\/p>\n
\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n
Not a shirt on my back<\/span>
\nNot a penny to my name<\/span>
\nLord, I can\u2019t go back home this ole way.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\"Inside<\/p>\n
The number ties in nicely with Llewyn\u2019s own unmoored journey through life, his failed relationships (with Jean and others), and also with the links to Homer’s Odyssey<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Llewyn feels his best shot at getting out of his rut is to travel to Chicago and, hopefully, get a gig with producer Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). To make the trip possible he splits gas money with\u00a0Roland Turner (in another fine performance from John Goodman), a jazz\u00a0musician with his own problems,\u00a0though at least he seems to have a successful career. Up to this point in the film we\u2019ve heard mentions of Llewyn\u2019s old music partner, Mike Timlin, and we know Mike is dead. Llewyn is still in shock, though he\u2019s been trying to move on to the solo scene. Here we get a bit more of the story, and a glimpse at the other-worldly power of Roland Turner. Llewyn tells Roland that Mike jumped off the George Washington Bridge, and Roland simply says:<\/p>\n
George Washington Bridge? You throw yourself off the Brooklyn Bridge, traditionally. George Washington Bridge? Who does that?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\"Inside<\/p>\n
The whole trip to Chicago is strange and otherworldly, really taking advantage of the soft focus photography by Bruno Delbonnel,\u00a0kind of like Llewyn’s passage into the underworld. Llewyn ends up having an argument with Turner — as he does with almost everyone. Upset,\u00a0Turner tells Llewyn that he doesn\u2019t need to physically best Llewyn; he has cursed Llewyn. It might not be for years, but some day Llewyn is going to wake up and wonder why his life is so terrible. It\u2019s kind of like Goodman is reprising his role as (maybe) the Devil from Barton Fink<\/em>, capable of supernatural powers, an incarnation of some subconscious demon. Of course, it\u2019s not necessary to go that far: Roland can see that Llewyn already thinks his life is terrible, and he\u2019s got no qualms pointing it out.<\/p>\n
The meeting with Bud Grossman goes poorly, and Llewyn continues to wander in his own personal hell.<\/p>\n
\"Inside<\/p>\n
Which brings me to the point I want to focus on, and this requires me to discuss the ending of the film. So, if you\u2019re not already wary of spoilers, let me warn younow.<\/p>\n
When the meeting in Chicago goes poorly, it\u2019s sort of the end of the line. I love how Richard Brody put it here<\/span><\/strong><\/a>: \u201cDavis is, in effect, condemned to return to his life, to New York, to face the same travails all over again.\u201d But first, perhaps we see a glimmer of hope. He makes up with the Gorfein\u2019s (I didn\u2019t describe the awful fight they had), and goes back to the Gaslight to perform a powerful rendition of \u201cFare Thee Well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He steps off the stage, the manager tells him his friend is waiting outside, and there\u2019s the man in the hat waiting to beat Llewyn \u2014 again? And, thus, the end is the beginning, on and on, maybe forever. Some great detective work has led some to suspect the year is now 1963 (that\u2019s the year The Incredible Journey<\/em> came out, and its poster is seen in the film; that\u2019s also the year Bob Dylan recorded his own song \u201cFarewell,\u201d which he\u2019s singing at The Gaslight as Llewyn steps out to see that friend). There are other clues that this end is slightly different from the beginning, and all of it leads to a wonderful effect.<\/p>\n
Sure, this could be Llewyn\u2019s curse, brought on by Roland Turner (and maybe plenty of others), condemning Llewyn to life, wandering the streets of New York, an unknown, with a cat\u00a0that does<\/em> make it home. Llewyn\u2019s own lines suggest perpetuity: \u201cIf it was never new, and it never gets old, then it\u2019s a folk song.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also says, \u201cI\u2019m tired. I thought I just needed a night\u2019s sleep, but it\u2019s more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And maybe Bud Grossman\u2019s advice is Llewyn\u2019s only escape. When Grossman suggests Llewyn join a group of musicians rather than go solo, Llewyn says no, he already had a partner. Grossman says, \u201cMy suggestion: get back together.\u201d Llewyn\u2019s response: \u201cThat\u2019s good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps Llewyn is already dead. When he wakes up at the Gorfein\u2019s home, Mozart\u2019s Requiem is playing in the background. And then there are the great lines from the first song we heard, \u201cHang Me, Oh, Hang Me\u201d:<\/p>\n
Hang me, oh, hang me, I\u2019ll be dead and gone.<\/span>
\nHang me, oh, hang me, I\u2019ll be dead and gone.<\/span>
\nI wouldn\u2019t mind the hanging, but the laying in the grave so long<\/span>
\nPoor boy, I\u2019ve been all around this world.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is this what it\u2019s like to lie in the grave so long? At any rate, doomed to\u00a0pass this blank stage of his life again and again, Llewyn is no longer Odysseus but Sisyphus, repeating the struggle forever. Llewyn\u2019s last words suggest return: as he watches the man in the hat drive off, he says,\u00a0\u201cAu revoir.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, of course,\u00a0we don\u2019t need to take this all that far and assume the tale of Llewyn Davis is some kind of actual curse. It\u2019s the feeling. The Coens are not, I don\u2019t think, making this man\u2019s tale a myth; rather, they are utilizing myth to emphasize the very real struggle of Llewyn Davis, and others like him, who, despite his flaws and his general misanthropy, doesn\u2019t seem to deserve the seemingly never-ending\u00a0struggle that comes when one cannot place oneself in this world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dark film, textured, layered, all those great words that you use when you could watch the same film over and over again and keep seeing new and familiar\u00a0things.<\/p>\n
\n
The Criterion Collection edition:<\/strong>\u00a0The first rumor that The Criterion Collection was going to release Inside Llewyn Davis<\/em> was surprising. It was New Year’s Day 2015, and The Criterion Collection released a drawing that hinted at forthcoming titles. There on the beach was a bearded Oscar Isaac carrying a guitar and a cat. How much more direct could you be? Only, the film had just gotten a Blu-ray release. Furthermore, this would be the first Coen Brothers film to get into the Criterion Collection, despite rumors that Barton Fink<\/em> was coming. I, for one, was thrilled. I love this film, though I also wondered just what The Criterion Collection might do to make their edition stand out. Well, they stacked the release with many excellent supplements. If you bought the original Blu-ray, I still recommend picking up this new Criterion release.<\/p>\n