Follow a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles -- some of them of his own making. Written by
Plot Synopsis:
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In February 1961, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer (previously a merchant marine) in New York City's Greenwich Village. His musical partner, Mike, has committed suicide; Llewyn's recent solo album Inside Llewyn Davis is not selling; he has no money and is sleeping on the couches of friends and acquaintances.Llewyn performs in the Gaslight Cafe ("Hang Me, Oh Hang Me"), and club owner Pappi (Max Casella) tells him someone is waiting for him. Outside, a shadowy man in a suit beats Llewyn for having heckled a performance at the venue the previous night.
Llewyn sleeps at the Upper West Side apartment of his older friends the Gorfeins. The next morning, he listens to one track from his and Mike's album "If We Had Wings" ("Dink's Song", not to be confused with another traditional ballad, "Fare Thee Well (Ten Thousand Miles)").[6] When Llewyn leaves the apartment, the Gorfeins' orange tabby cat (a male) gets locked out. Llewyn takes the cat to the West Village apartment of his friends Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan). Llewyn visits his manager, who explains that Llewyn's album is not selling, but claims he sent a copy to Chicago producer Bud Grossman (a character based on impresario Albert Grossman).
Jean secretly tells Llewyn she is pregnant, and fearing that she was impregnated by Llewyn instead of Jim, asks him to pay for an abortion. The three friends attend the Gaslight Cafe. Llewyn unsuccessfully asks Jim for money. Jim, Jean, and their guest Troy Nelson (Stark Sands) perform "Five Hundred Miles". The next morning, it seems that the Gorfeins' cat escapes again.
Llewyn visits his sister in Woodside, Queens, hoping to borrow money, and tells her to throw out a box of his papers. On Jim's invitation, Llewyn, as part of the "John Glenn Singers", records a novelty song with Jim and Al Cody (Adam Driver), "Please Mr. Kennedy". Llewyn needs money immediately and agrees to $200, with no royalties.At the gynecologist's office, Llewyn sets up Jean's appointment. The doctor says that two years previously, Llewyn had paid in advance for another woman who then decided to keep the baby and moved to Akron. Llewyn and Jean argue about his lack of direction. On the street Llewyn grabs what appears to be the Gorfeins' orange cat; that evening he takes the cat back, and is invited in to have dinner. He is rude the Gorfeins' guests and when asked to play after dinner reluctantly starts playing "Fare Thee Well". Mrs. Gorfein starts to sing the harmony -- which was Mike's part -- but Llewyn snaps, insulting the Gorfeins and their guests. Mrs. Gorfein leaves the table crying, coming back when she discovers that the orange cat is not theirs; Llewyn takes the cat and leaves.
Llewyn rides with two musicians driving to Chicago: the laconic Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund), a beat poet, and the disagreeable Roland Turner (John Goodman), a jazz musician. Roland insults Llewyn: demeaning folk music, making fun of his name, and ridiculing a grown man traveling with a cat. Later Llewyn plays his guitar ("Green, Green Rocky Road"). At a roadside restaurant, Roland collapses from a heroin overdose in the bathroom. The three continue, eventually stopping on the side of the highway that night to rest. When a police officer tells them to move on, Johnny resists and is arrested. Left without the keys, Llewyn abandons the car, with the cat and the unconscious Roland inside.
In Chicago, Llewyn seeks out Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham), who says he never received a copy of Llewyn's record, but agrees to an audition. Llewyn plays "The Death of Queen Jane"; Grossman is not encouraging.Llewyn hitchhikes back to New York and hits what may be yet another or perhaps the same orange cat with the car he is driving. He considers briefly detouring to see his son in Akron. Back in New York he pays $148 to rejoin the merchant marines. He also visits his ailing father, singing him "The Shoals of Herring". Llewyn then starts to say goodbye to Jean; she tells him that Pappi will let him play at the Gaslight again. Llewyn searches for his shipping license required to ship out but it was in the box his sister threw out. The union office can issue a new license, but at a price that Llewyn cannot now afford.
At the Gaslight, an Irish quartet performs "The Auld Triangle". Pappi states that he had sex with Jean, suggesting that he pressures female performers he finds attractive to do so in order to perform at the Gaslight. Llewyn becomes upset and loudly heckles an older woman playing "The Storms Are On the Ocean". He is thrown out and goes to the Gorfeins' apartment. They graciously welcome him; he is amazed to see that their orange cat Ulysses found his way home, arriving the previous day.
The next morning is nearly identical to his stay at the Gorfeins' at the beginning of the film, although this time he blocks the cat from escaping. On the street he gazes at a poster for The Incredible Journey, wondering about all his sightings of an orange cat.
He performs at the Gaslight, singing "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" and finishing with a raw, emotional solo performance of "If I Had Wings". Pappi teases him about his heckling the previous evening and tells him that a friend is waiting outside. As Llewyn leaves the building, a young Bob Dylan takes the stage and begins to sing. Behind the Gaslight, Llewyn is confronted by a shadowy man in a suit, who beats him for rudely heckling the previous night's performance, who he reveals was his wife. Llewyn watches the man get in a taxi, commenting "Au revoir".
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ericjams from United States
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I saw Inside Llewyn Davis in a sold out matine in Union Square, NYC last weekend. The city was cold and dreary, much like the 1960s Manhattan depicted in this film. I sat with my friend after the movie and basically railed against the film for the first ten minutes before slowly admitting that my criticisms were obviously the intended result and that the Coen Brothers have once again made a great movie that is simply not easy to digest and certainly not fun to digest.
I'll lead with the greatness. The underlying takeaway of this film is that the actual creation of music - the sound, the beauty and the lyrical story - can embody some of the best attributes about humanity and yet, the creator of such music can nonetheless lack all such attributes and essentially be as ugly a person as his music is beautiful. That is the takeaway, and the Coen Bros intentionally force this upon the viewer. The folk songs song by Lleywn serve as calming beautiful interludes and as stark contrasts to the plot driven by a character who is simply put, a terrible human being stuck in an extremely frustrating, self-made vacuum of an existence.
I assume that most people, like me, gravitate toward wanting to root for the struggling artist. There is a nobility in pursuing your dreams when such dreams consist of the pursuit of an art form. Here, folk music is put on a pedestal and LLewyn's pursuit of it is from the outset, something the audience implicitly will support. In the course of 90 minutes, the Coen Bros force you to question this support, hate the lead character and eventually cheer when he gets punched in the face.
The problem is simple. I did not want any more of LLewyn Davis after 90 minutes. I did not want to hear his music anymore because the lyrics he sung were fraudulent, the beauty of his playing, a guise. And due to his self-made failings throughout the film, I no longer cared where his story went. The Coen Bros could have taken the plot line in any number of ways to give the viewer some foothold to hope that Llewyn may end up on the right track one day. They do not give you that foothold, and for that reason, I was pretty ready for this movie to end when it did. This is admittedly a criticism, but more an observation. I certainly do not need films to end with rainbows and hearts, but this script really forces you to watch a man stuck in a static world where his own actions cause him to go nowhere, and that is a frustrating world to inhabit for 90 minutes.
The best parts of the film are not the Manhattan scenes, but the drive LLewyn takes to Chicago. The Coen Bros have used the theme of "driving at night" time and time again to make some great scenes, usually emotionally charged personal voyages. This is no different. Their cinematography and over all character driven story telling shines when their lead characters hit the road. The bit characters are fun and unusual in the Coen Bro's way, but do little to ease the 90 minutes of crass, immature, self-defeating, out-of-touch and eventually just pathetic life movements from Lleywn's character
For Coen Brother fans, its worth the journey; for general movie fans, be warned, as this is an interesting film, but arguably not an enjoyable one.
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David Ferguson (fergusontx@gmail.com) from Dallas, Texas
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Greetings again from the darkness. If you are a follower of the filmmaking Coen Brothers, then you are quite aware of their complete lack of artistic interest in any traditionally successful character. Their work is inspired by life's obstacles and tough luck, even if brought on by a character's own poor judgment. Coen Brother stories revolve around those who carry on and have (blind?) faith that their approach, no matter how ill conceived, is the only option ... the only path worth taking. Their main character this time out seems to think life is filled with only careerists (sell-outs) or losers (those who can't get a break). The titular Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) is introduced to us onstage at the Gaslight singing a beautiful folk song. Moments later he is lying in the back alley after taking a whipping from a mysterious stranger. It's not until this scene is repeated again at the film's end do we understand the cause of this effect. See, Llewyn is not a very likable guy. We learn he is still grieving from the suicide of his musical partner (as sung by Marcus Mumford), and that he bounces from sofa to sofa amongst acquaintances and family members. Llewyn has no friends, only acquaintances too kind to throw him out ... even if he might be the father of an unwanted baby, or if he accidentally allows a beloved pet cat to escape. The story is based in the folk music scene of 1961 Greenwich Village in the pre-Bob Dylan days. The Coen's were inspired by the memoirs of Dave Van Ronk entitled "The Mayor of MacDougal Street". So while the songs are real and the characters are often inspired or based upon real artists of the time, Llewyn's story is pure Coen fiction. That means cringing, levels of discomfort, uneasy chuckling and moments of rapture ... such as John Goodman evoking a drugged out Doc Promus spewing harsh poetic diatribes. We never really know if the Coens are making a statement or tossing it out for us to debate. Are they saying that even the ugliness of Llewyn's personality can produce something as beautiful as music, or are they saying that we get tricked by beautiful music into thinking that the artist must also be pure? Carey Mulligan (as Jean) has one of the film's best and most insightful lines when she tells Llewyn he is "King Midas' idiot brother". Her pure disgust (and expert rendering of the F-word) and anger contrasts with her angelic onstage persona with husband Jim (Justin Timberlake). As always, the Coens provide us a constant flow of interesting and oddball characters. In addition to Goodman's jazz hipster, we get Garrett Hedlund as an ultra cool (til he's not) valet, Adam Driver as a cowboy folk singer, Troy Nelson as a virtuous Army folk singer (based on Tom Paxton), and Llewyn's Upper East side cat owners, his spunky sister, and best of all F Murray Abraham as Bud Grossman, the owner of Chicago's Gate of Horn club. Based on the real Albert Grossman who discovered Peter, Paul and Mary, and managed Bob Dylan, Grossman is the lone witness to Llewyn's audition. This may be the most touching musical moment of the movie ("The Death of Queen Jane"), but it's clearly the wrong song for the moment. Oscar Isaac is exceptional as Llewyn Davis. He captures that crisis of self that's necessary for an artist whose talent and passion is just out of step with societal changes. We feel his pain, but fail to understand the lack of caring he often displays towards others. We get how his need for money overrides his artistic integrity as he participates in the novelty song "Please Mr Kennedy". Why Isaac's performance is not garnering more Oscar chat is beyond my understanding. It's possibly due to the fact that the movie and his character are not readily accessible to the average movie goer. Some thought and consideration is required. If you are expecting a feel good nostalgic trip down the folk singer era of Greenwich Village, you will be shocked and disappointed. Instead, brace yourself for the trials of a talented musician who believes the music should be enough. Speaking of music, the immensely talented T Bone Burnett is the man behind the music and it's fascinating to note how he allows the songs to guide us through the story and keep us ever hopeful of better days. This is the Coen Brothers at their most refined and expert.
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Kevin Kacan from Michigan
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Saw the prescreening at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, MI with average expectations, this is my reaction:
This film is an experience, but not for any sort of superficial special effects, action or CGI. It's an experience in which you will feel fear, joy, hate, hope, sorrow and contempt all within an hour and 45 minutes that feels more like 15 minutes. We are sidelined, watching a short snippet of Llewyn's seemingly dismal life, drudge on by, yet we are drawn. We connect with Lleywn's anger and struggles, as if we too are burdened by his failures and challenges. But amongst the bad, there are moments of cheer, and laughter and peace reminding us that good still exists. What dominates is power, balanced by music, money and pride, yet this movie is better served as a reminder that life is an experience, and individualistic. We are reminded that more often than not, things do not fall into place and luck is rarely on our side. But no matter how many times people fail you, one should never fail, before one's self. This movie is an experience, it indirectly breaths life into each of our souls, and should appeal to anyone in touch with the most crucial human emotions: compassion and empathy. Hold on tight, because it is one experience that will remain with you long after the credits are through. Perfectly casted, perfectly scripted, perfectly filmed; perfectly entertaining.
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James D from United States
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Inside Llewyn Davis is a hard film to quantify. It is very much a Coen Brothers movie, and it is very much its own thing. I did not know the history of the story. I did not know the story behind the Gaslight club in New York nor did I know of the famous figure who started at the bar back in 1961 when the film takes place. I found out after the film was over. However, not knowing that, I still thought this was an incredible movie.
There are oddly poetic scenes in the film. There is a scene where the main character Llewyn Davis hits a cat with his car. As he watches the cat limp away into the darkness injured, I felt that it was an interesting image that seemed to mirror Llewyn's life in the film. Although I was aware of the poetic aspect of the film, I did not feel that they were forced moments. In interviews the Coen Brothers always seem to play dumb. In an interview for this film the Coen Brothers talked about the cat in the movie, and how they didn't know what to do with the story, so they threw in a cat. Anybody who has seen a Coen Brothers movie can appreciate that this is far from the truth. Every moment and image seems to be very specifically placed, and that was the case for this movie as well.
You can't judge this movie the same way you would judge every other film this year. It's almost as if the Coen Brothers have their own language that they are speaking, that the audience does not fully understand. We catch some things, and even with those few moments, I was mesmerized. Sometimes I really notice their style like in their film A Serious Man, and I find myself confused and bored, but this film felt very true to me. I sympathized with the main character and his struggles, perhaps because I consider myself a creative person as well, so I know how hard it is. At one point Llewyn says, "I'm just so f-ing tired," this line says a lot more than just I want to sleep. It is something we can all relate to, a feeling of just wanting to give up, and in this way, the story is a universal one, but then again it's the Coen Brothers, so automatically I know some people might not like it, but I loved it.
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rlchianese from United States
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It's amazing how dazzled one can be by so very little these days. There's very little here--a struggling unpleasant man who sings his heart out about standard "folk" catastrophes but can't take care of himself as he goes about damaging others, and animals as well. He's your 50's college roommate who cooks on a hot plate and sings about historic heroic starvations. The in- and-out mythic references are unfocused and a game for undergraduates. When the Coens go flat it's not even E flat. We're forced to watch this guy's face for an hour or so without a clue to his demons; he's just a jerk, a driven jerk but a jerk nonetheless.
Best part is the recreation of the early 60's in cars, atmospheres, but then John Goodman shows up from "Where art thou?" and spoils the realistic angst. Sorry, but the early folk scene wasn't this creepy and Bob Dylan didn't rescue it from oblivion or creepiness. Without a political or sexual agenda (it got you chicks) it did flounder, but it needed an audience for shifting values and social awareness. One's suffering couldn't just be for one's art, but had to have a social dimension that this guy can't see. A genius before his time? Hardly--a guy who can't take care of himself, or his friends or family or lovers--anything but "folk." The times they were a changin', but this guy's a talented pathetic scrounge and lacks the connections to others and society that might propel him to sing for the changing times.
This might be the ethos of the Coens and their films themselves--within society but not of it. Their characters struggle with their messy quirky lives but we see them as curiosities rather than representatives of anything important. There's a certain clown show aspect to their films, which creates their charm and fun but little else.
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Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) from United States
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Inside Llewyn Davis is an intimate, well-executed, and honest slice of life. It features a humanistic, heartfelt performance by Oscar Isaac as the titular folk singer, arresting cinematography, and a sharp, tight-fisted script by the Coen brothers, who also directed.
It's Greenwich Village in the early sixties, when folk music was either coming into its own or ready to be usurped by a more mainstream genre. Llewyn has no home, drifting from gig to gig and crashing on couch after couch as a matter of design; is vagrancy is his life's plan. Llewyn is at turns a noble soul who exists for the sake of making the music he wants to make and a resentful twerp who mooches off friends just to sustain his unsustainable lifestyle.
The movie is only somewhat linear, with closing scenes mirroring opening scenes, and it is told entirely from Llewyn's point of view. The Coen brothers masterfully show us not only Llewyn's perspective but also an outside perspective; this allows us to feel both empathy and loathing toward him.
Llewyn is nothing if not complex. The movie does a terrific job of avoiding the usual clichs, such as a down-on-his-luck musician catching a lucky break, or a bitter man having a quick change of heart. It's not that Llewyn is constantly sneering at everyone, holding his poverty up as both a shield and a trophy, it's that he is so multilayered that when he does a kind act or offers some praise or thanks, we don't feel that his doing so is in any way out of character. Llewyn is a self-tortured soul, but unlike caricatures of wandering folkies, he is at his center a realist, albeit a prideful one.
During his travels and travails, Llewyn encounters people ranging from the genuine (his singing friends Jim and Jean, played by Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan) to the absurd (a rotund, blustery John Goodman). Oh, and a cat that travels with Llewyn - at least until he can get him or her back to the owner. The encounters with the genuine folks feel just as normal as if you or I encountered them; those with the more absurd of the lot feel perfectly surreal, and when they do end one almost wonders if we've all imagined the encounters through Llewyn himself.
The music is beautiful and moving. Isaac himself performs Llewyn's songs, with a sweet, vulnerable voice that offers a touch of soul to Llewyn's otherwise-bleak surroundings. When Llewyn is really on, you can feel his pain leap right off the screen into your brain; when he appears to be going through the motions and not singing from his heart, you can feel the lack of depth that his intended audience also feels. Isaac is just flat-out terrific.
Ultimately, it is Isaac and the music that push this film into the territory of great cinema. The story itself is stark, moody, unyielding - just like a New York City winter, really. And the movie, like Llewyn's own life, appears to have no point - except to illustrate just how pointless Llewyn is making his life, through his stubborn marriage to his craft and a desire to stay uprooted
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lsimon33 from United States
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As I walked out of the theater where my friend and I had just paid $11 each to see this film, I thought to myself, "Well, maybe next time they'll actually make a movie." Because I would not really consider this a movie. It is a half-baked, moody character sketch of an unbelievable character. As another reviewer pointed out, Llewyn Davis is quite good looking and capable of performing passionately. To think that not one of the women in the clubs he plays would offer him a place to sleep for the night is absurd. That is only one example of how the film favors contrivance over believability. John Goodman's character is another big one.
The movie is a pointless waste of time, a dreary faux-odyssey about a character who is such an awful, self-centered person that you could not possibly care what happens to him. But don't worry, because nothing happens to him. The film ends as it begins, with him getting beaten up for being a selfish jerk. As many have pointed out, this movie does not capture the heady, vibrant spirit of the early 60s folk scene in NYC. If you want that, read Bob Dylan's wonderful Chronicles, Vol. I.
I've enjoyed many of the Coen Brothers films, but they just phoned this one in, I guess. Or they've become so enamored with their own Hollywood brilliance that they can't tell good from bad. And Hollywood is so shallow and moronic that I would not be surprised if this gets nominated for "Best Film." Yeah, right.
I enjoy a lot of folk music, from early Dylan to Nick Drake and many others, but the songs in this film were long and boring and unmemorable. Huge amounts of the film are devoted to Llewyn singing ENTIRE SONGS (like five or six minute long songs) that are in no way remarkable. I guess that's the point, since he's supposed to be failure. Instead of devoting film time to character or plot development, to comedy or entertainment, we are supposed to be entranced somehow by the emotion of this fake music. I guess it worked magic on professional film critics. The "Please Mr. Kennedy" novelty song was beyond stupid. And when Davis abandoned the cat in the car with the passed out, possibly even dead, Goodman character, I thought, "Screw this guy! I hate him. I hope he gets beaten up again. I'll beat him up."
As a work of art, which it clearly aspires to be, this movie lacks intricacy, depth, or insight. The Coens already covered this material with Barton Fink, which I've always enjoyed, but BF was a much more satisfying and entertaining film. I'd rather go see a mindless Star Trek movie than something this pretentious and intentionally pointless. I don't want to see it again, not even for a buck at Redbox. This is the worst Coen Bros movie I've seen.
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saschakrieger from Germany
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No doubt: Llewyn Davis is a loser. First, his career as a folk singer is going badly: his duet partner committed suicide, his record isn't selling, he makes so little that he cannot afford his own apartment but has to move from friend to friend, or rather from acquaintance to acquaintance. Secondly, as far as human relationships are concerned, he is a total failure. His ex girlfriend despises him, one of her predecessors faked an abortion to have him out of her – and the mutual child's life – people who are sympathetic to him, get a rather rude treatment on a daily basis. After A Serious Man, the Coen brothers have again chosen to depict a man on the wrong side of luck. Only this time, one might say he deserves it. Or maybe not, for he has one redeeming feature. The film opens with a long scene in which Davis (Oscar Isaac) performs a sad old folk song. The camera gently hovers around him, catches the hushed, intensely attentive atmosphere of the smoky basement club, while he sucks his audience – us – into the dark, sorrowful world he creates in his song, hinting at a depth he so often will not show in "real life". It is this contrast, the dialogue between the sadly funny tale of a modern Don Quixote and that other, older, tenderer story, the music tells. For as much as this is Llewyn's story, it also is that of the redeeming power of music. For even if Davis is the same at the end as the story comes full circle and returns to its opening, as he once again gets beaten up and is succeeded on stage by a young, cocky folk singer with a nasal voice who will soon change music – and not just folk music – forever, there is just the tiniest hint that this Llewyn Davis might have some sort of promise after all, maybe not as a successful singer, but as a human being. Inside Llewyn Davis is inspired loosely by the story of Dave van Ronk, a star of the Greenwich Village folk scene around the time of Bob Dylan's arrival there in 1961. Dylan learned a lot from van Ronk and stole some of his most promising songs, but that is a story to be told another day. This one is about a man lost in a world that hasn't been waiting for him, who has a mission that is entirely his own. The lengths to which he goes to show the world he doesn't care are astounding. And yet he craves love. Oscar Isaac is a miracle: even in his most repelling state, in his most rejecting attitude, there is a flicker of sad longing in his face, his eyes, a face the Coens show us much of. It is one you need to dive into, closed to the casual observer but hiding so much pain and uncertainty and desire to live one sometimes thinks it must explode. The Coens' cinema is one of subtlety, of nuanced, of shades of grey between the black and white. In Isaac, they have found their perfect actor, heading a stellar cast including Carey Mulligan, John Goodman and Justin Timberlake. As so often, the Coen brothers are masters at creating an atmosphere, a universe of its own, unique as well as absolutely consistent. It is a world of the night, in which grey shades reign, days are pale and dust is everywhere. Even in the open there is a sense of narrowness, of tight spaces, lightless basements that are cage and protective space in one. It is the tiny holes that provide the only rooms for creativity, for the soul to speak. And so it is that the dark world of the underground gradually regains some warmth and coziness, the dark becomes a zone of comfort, while everything else becomes cold and distant. Having said all this, Inside Llewyn Davis is first and foremost a comedy in the Coenesque sense of the term. It is a Quixotic tale full of quirky characters at time bordering on the fairy-tale like – especially true for the sequence around Goodman's character, a trodden-down mixture of villain and clown that calls up associations of the expressionist nightmare world of their earlier film Barton Fink. The other foot of the film is firmly on the ground, in the existential struggle of a man the world won't welcome. But there is still that third element: music, that timeless realm of love and pain and suffering and hope. It is here the film is anchored, it is here this Don Quixote conquers his windmills, armed solely with his guitar. It is here it all comes together. Tragedy, comedy, fairy tale, social drama, held together by the softest of touches. Another Coen brothers masterpiece. What else could be expected?
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alroccamo from United States
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I read the other reviews here and am at a loss for words. When it ended, my wife turned to me and said it was awful. I told her it was very, very dull. A stranger in front of us also hated the film. There was a blow-up of a review of the movie in the lobby, and about twenty or thirty audience members were clustered in front of it, no doubt trying to reconcile the review with the cinematic lobotomy we had just endured. The only things I liked about the movie were seeing Dad's old 1961 Chrysler Newport on the street, and F. Murray Abraham. I respect all other reviewers' opinions, but this is mine. And yes, I've seen other Coen brothers films and liked them.
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chaos-rampant from Greece
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At some point of this the folk singer we've been following is stranded at night by the side of the road in a car with possibly a dead man and a cat, another man has just been arrested by police for not much of a reason. He gets out to hitch a ride and there's only a cold, indifferent night with strangers in their cars just going about.
This is the worldview the Coens have been prodding, sometimes for a laugh, sometimes not. I can't fault them, it does seem to be inexplicably cold out there some nights. They're thinkers first of all, intellectuals, so it stings them more so they try to think up ways of mocking that thinker who is stung by the cold to amuse themselves and pass the night.
So this is what they give us here. A joyless man for no particular reason, who plays decent music that people enjoy or not for no particular reason, who the universe has turned against. The Coens don't pretend to have any particular answer either of why this is, why the misery. It might have something to do with having lost a friend, something to do with not having learned to be simply grateful for a small thing. It might have something to do with something he did, the initial beating up in the alley is there to insert this. Sometimes it's just something that happens as random as a cat deciding to step out of the door and the door closing before you can put it back in. Most of the time it all kind of snowballs together.
It's a noir device (the beating - cat) bundling guilt with chance so we'll end up with a clueless schmuck whose own contribution to the nightmare is inextricable from the mechanics of the world. The Coens have mastered noir so they trot it here with ease: the more this anti-Dude fails to ease into life the more noir anomaly appears around him.
Of course the whole point is that it's not such a bad setup; people let him crash in their apartment, a friend finds him a paying gig, somehow he ends up on a car to Chicago where he's offered a job. It's not great either, but somewhere in there is a pretty decent life it could all amount to, provided he settles for less than his dream. (This means here a dream the self is attached to). I saw this after a documentary on backup singers, all of them profoundly troubled for having settled for less, all of them nonetheless happy to be able to do their music.
Still, 'The incredible journey', seen on the Disney poster, may in the end amount to no more than an instinctive drive through miles of wilderness. The Coens are cold here even for their standards. I wouldn't be surprised to find it was Ethan, the more introverted of the two, ruminating on a meaningless art without his partner.
Is there a way out in the end? Here's the trickiest part, especially for an intelligent mind. You can't just kid yourself with any other happiness like Hollywood has done since Chaplin. You know it has to be invented to some degree, the point of going on, yet truthful. Nothing here. More music, a reflection. It's the emptiest part of the film as if they didn't know themselves what to construct to put him back on stage. Visually transcending was never their forte anyway. They merely end up explaining the wonderful noir ambiguity of that first beating.
Still they are some of the most dependable craftsmen we have and in the broader Coen cosmos this sketches its own space.
In an interview included on the DVD, Ethan Coen said, "The cat was a nightmare. The trainer warned us and she was right, she said, uh, 'Dogs like to please you. The cat only likes to please itself.' A cat basically is impossible to train. We have a lot of footage of cats doing things we don't want them to do, if anyone's interested; I don't know if there's a market for that."
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After Oscar Isaac's first meeting with T Bone Burnett, advisor/composer/musician Burnett put on a Tom Waits record and simply left the room for an hour. "That was the first lesson," Isaac said. "It was a real Mr. Miyagi moment."
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The folk singer Dave Van Ronk, who was an inspiration for some of the movie's characters and story, released a 1963 album called "Inside Dave Van Ronk." Its cover was a photo of Van Ronk and a cat standing in a doorway. On the "Fresh Air" NPR interview program, host Terry Gross asked the Coens if that was their inspiration for having a cat in the movie, and they said that not only was it not, but also that they hadn't even noticed the cat on the Van Ronk album cover until they'd completed shooting. and an art director pointed out the coincidence during post-production.
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The film's title only is seen as the name of Llewyn Davis' solo album in the body of the film. It does not appear in the beginning or end credits.
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Oscar Isaac actually strongly dislikes cats; he once received an infection from a cat bite.
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Llewyn Davis is a fictional character, not based on the life of Dave Van Ronk. However, the creative spark for making this movie came from Van Ronk's memoir "The Mayor of MacDougal Street". The film looks at the Greenwich Village music scene in and around the real-life clubs Gaslight Cafe and Gerde's Folk City.
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"Jim and Jean" were actually a real American folk-music duo--Jim Glover and Jean Ray--who performed and recorded in 1960s Greenwich Village. As his Ohio State college roommate, Jim Glover was the person who first introduced legendary performer Phil Ochs to folk music; early on they were also briefly a duo. And Jean Ray was noted for being the inspiration for Neil Young 's song "Cinnamon Girl".
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Last acting role of Jerry Grayson. Ironically, in this, his last film, his character Mel Novikoff is said to be frequently out of the office because he liked attending funerals.
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The Coens' usual choice for cinematographer, Roger Deakins, was unavailable as he was busy shooting Skyfall (2012). Meanwhile, Bruno Delbonnel, who is French, stepped in to take the position, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, his fourth nomination in 13 years. Deakins, who is British, had been nominated 11 times for Oscars, five of those films for the Coens.
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The Irish quartet performing in the Gaslight all wear Aran sweaters, a notable reference to The Clancy Brothers who shot to international fame in the 1960s.
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The Coens also told interviewer Terry Gross that working with multiple cats on the set was very difficult, and that they ended up disliking cats in general, largely because of their experience with them on this film. They also said that even the trained vulture they had worked with making True Grit (2010) was preferable to the cats they had to deal with, even though that trained bird of prey had been, "by vulture standards, probably a stupid vulture."
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Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers auditioned for the lead role of Llewyn Davis.
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The "Inside Llewyn Davis" album cover is based on the cover of the album "Inside Dave van Ronk".
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The Bud Grossman character played by F. Murray Abraham is based on Albert Grossman, who ran the Gate of Horn club in Chicago and managed acts like Bob Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, and Janis Joplin.
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This film marks the second time Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan have played opposite each other. The first was in Drive (2011) where they played a husband and wife.
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This is the second Coen brothers movie with a plot partly inspired by Homer's The Odyssey. When the first one, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, came out, the Coen brothers told several interviewers that had never actually read The Odyssey; in 2013, they told Terry Gross that they had still never gotten around to reading it. One of them said to Gross, "Yeah. It's right by my bedside table. I keep looking over, at it and going, ugh."
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Chris Eldridge, guitarist of the Punch Brothers, is shown on the album cover of the Timlin & Davis album "If I Had Wings." In this visual only he portrays Mike Timlin, Llewyn's former partner in the duo Timlin & Davis. The Punch Brothers contributed heavily to the music and soundtrack of the movie, as well as being the "house band" for the concert "Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of 'Inside Llewyn Davis'" staged months before the film's release.
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The author of Peter Pan based Pan off of the boys of the Llewelyn-Davies family. This may be Llewyn Davis' namesake, because he shares traits with Peter Pan like irresponsibility and carelessness, or a cool coincidence.
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DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Joel CoenEthan Coen): [Kubrick]: The first few shots of the scene in the bathroom were filmed as an one-point perspective, the same way Kubrick filmed the memorable meeting between Jack Torrance and Grady in The Shining (1980) also taking place in a bathroom.
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When Llewyn checks out his and Mike's record, "If We Had Wings" in the Gorfein's apartment in the beginning of the film, the bio underneath Mike Timlin's name is word-for-word that of Dave Van Ronk.
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The singing voice of Mike, Llewyn's deceased music partner, is Marcus Mumford of the band Mumford and Sons, and actress Carey Mulligan's husband.
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The Gaslight's manager is named Pappi Corsicato, a reference to the Italian director with the same name (Pappi Corsicato).
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After the cat escapes the Gorfeins' home, Llewyn gets in the elevator and the print on the wall is taken from a famous photo of tragic jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and his band in New Orleans.
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Early screenings were shipped to theaters under the code name, 'The Gaslight.'
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During the film, Llewyn stops outside a cinema to look at a poster of 'The Incredible Journey' (1963), the plot of which revolves around pets travelling cross-country to get home.
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The character Troy Nelson is based on singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, who served in the army before beginning his career in Greenwich Village. Paxton's song "The Last Thing On My Mind" is featured in the film, and the Nelson character makes an implicit reference to another Paxton song "Buy a Gun For Your Son."
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In the last line of credits, before the copyright, is an emblem reading (in Hebrew and English) Kosher for Passover.
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The valet driver for John Goodman's character mentions a stint in a play he did for three weeks called "The Brig". This refers to a Living Theatre production in the early 1960s, revived a few years ago along with a documentary about the production, by Dirk Szusies, former member of the Living Theatre and his partner Karin Kaper.
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John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund's second appearance together; they played father and son gang members in the revenge thriller Death Sentence.
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Michael Fassbender auditioned for the role of Llewyn Davis.
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In the final scene in the Gaslight, the man Llewyn sees beginning a song as he goes out back is supposed to represent Bob Dylan, who first traveled to New York in the early 1960s.
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The picture of Llewyn's musical partner on the duo's album cover is actually of guitarist Chris Eldridge, who appears on the film's soundtrack.
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Llewyn finds out at the end that the cat which escaped and found its way back home is called 'Ulysses'. Ulysses is the Latin form of 'Odysseus', a hero from Greek mythology who embarked on a journey and found his way home many years later, against incredible odds.
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While Llewyn is making a payphone call on the elevated subway platform (Woodside/61st Street), a modern 7 train pulls into the station on the opposite track.
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Despite being set in 1961, Llewyn passes a poster for Disney's "The Incredible Journey" which was released in 1963.
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There is a Lava Lamp shown in one scene. The Lava Lamp wasn't invented until 1963 and wasn't available for purchase until 1965.
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The Bodoni-style logotype for Columbia Records, on the wall of the office foyer right before the "Dear Mr. Kennedy" recording session, wasn't used until 1970.
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Ewan MacColl's The Shoals of Herring was composed for and first broadcasted in a BBC 'Radio Ballad' in August 1960. Since the film is set in 1961, Llewyn Davis could not have recorded this as an eight year old.
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While driving to Chicago, the "valet" Johnny Five opens a conversation by muttering "Orlovsky" and "Clean Asshole Poems." That would be Peter Orlovsky, who was Allen Ginsburg's long-time partner. But "Clean Asshole Poems" wasn't published until 1978, and the movie is set in 1961.
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Llewyn Davis uses two different capos. In the clubs it appears to be a Hamilton capo which was around in the 1960s (although possibly not as early as 1961) but in other scenes he is clearly using a Shubb capo which was not available until 1980.
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Near the end of the movie, Llweyn walks past a movie theater and the billboard shows a poster of The Incredible Journey. The movie wasn't released until 1963.
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Despite being set in 1961, all of the Checker Cabs visible in the film are actually post-1973 models, identifiable by the large "guardrail"-style bumpers.
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The police car that pulls them over on the Chicago trip is a 1963 Plymouth.
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"The Last Thing on My Mind" performed by Troy Nelson (Stark Sands) at the Gaslight was not recorded by its author, Tom Paxton, until 1964.
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In one Greenwich Village street scene, the back end of a 1962 Cadillac is clearly visible in several shots, even though the film takes place in early 1961.
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The drum kit seen in the background of the studio recording scene is from a much later period.
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In the final scene, Bob Dylan doesn't strum his guitar to the audio of "Farewell".
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When LLewyn and Jean are talking on the couch in Jean's apartment, Jean's hair repeatedly changes position between shots.
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US 80 does NOT go through Akron. That's I-80 (not built in 1961). US 80 goes from San Diego to Savannah.
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Early in the film, Llewyn takes the subway downtown to Greenwich Village, and when he arrives at Sheridan Square, we see him coming up from the uptown platform, as if he had been traveling from the other direction. (He should have come up from the staircase across the street visible in the same shot.)
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During the scene in Washington Square park, the new stone benches that were added to the park in the recent renovation are clearly visible in the background.
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The soldier was wearing the correct 1961 fatigues/work clothes. However, soldiers were not permitted to travel in them until recent years and had to be in actual uniform or civilian clothes.
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Not only does the cover of the "Timlin and Davis" album shown near the beginning of the film recall the cover of "Inside Dave Van Ronk"; we can see that the liner notes are about Van Ronk.
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When the driver is arrested, the camera zooms to the ignition switch of the 1961 Buick. the keys are gone, but on that model the car would still start and run by turning the switch without a key. in the run position the key can be removed. in the lock position-full left-it cannot be restarted.
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After Llewyn returns from his Chicago trip and is staying at his sister's house, the Etch-A-Sketch by the bed reads "Welcome Uncle Llewyn," written in capital block letters (except for the "U" which connects to the "N"). However, it is not possible to create unconnected patterns on an Etch A Sketch screen, as the stylus only moves in a connected line, so only cursive(script) style of writing is possible.
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1960s|singer|winter|folk singer|guitar|musician|three word title|black comedy|search|loser|handcuffs|flashlight|classical music|circular staircase|penis|reference to mesoamerica|reference to macdougal street manhattan new york city|gaslight cafe manhattan new york city|accidentally locked out of an apartment|selling a house|little boy|silvertone guitar|lost cat|reference to ortovsky|reference to murfreesboro tennessee|upper west side manhattan new york city|cold the temperature|punched in the face|hit in the face|cooking|falling asleep while driving|fog|welsh|storytelling|reference to downing street manhattan new york city|reference to far rockaway queens new york city|reference to drink to me only with thine eyes the song|photograph|stairway|reference to fort dix new jersey|breakfast cereal|professor|reference to boston massachusetts|reference to seattle washington|reference to montreux switzerland|reference to the brooklyn bridge manhattan new york city|reference to the george washington bridge new york city|reference to the brig the play|waitress|reference to fred harvey restaurant|moussaka|electrical tape|washington square manhattan new york city|intercom|thrown out of a cafe|reference to elinera arkansas|penis slur|arrest|highway patrolman|knocking on a car window|kicking|husband wife relationship|reference to new jersey|car hitting an animal|train depot|listening to a car radio|listening to music|union dues|policeman|police car|diner|bus|character says i love you|reference to the new york times|reference to grandma moses|heckler|uncle nephew relationship|theatrical agent|show business|crying|reference to cincinnati ohio|reference to new orleans louisiana|looking out a window|chase|pursuit|reflection in a subway window|fire escape|toilet stall|men's bathroom|snoring|sleeping|reading aloud|reading|reference to harry james|elevator|key|apology|boxer shorts|milk|doctor|character says thank you very much|borrowing money|contract|reference to flash gordon|reference to john glenn|reference to john f. kennedy jr.|underwear|alley|beating|friend|reference to jesus christ|reference to god|sunglasses|cane|mail|lp recording|columbia records|columbia university manhattan new york city|backpack|reference to ulysses|character says thank you|reference to tang|secretary|reference to king midas|condom|restaurant|cafe|eating|food|snowing|snow|rain|liar|lie|telephone call|telephone|pay phone|coat|money|cigarette smoking|u.s. soldier|sleeping on the floor|drinking|drink|wine|filling station|gas station|reference to elvis presley|chicago illinois|manhattan new york city|new york city|akron ohio|applause|microphone|ginger cat|sociology professor|sociologist|no opening credits|suicide|driving a car|reference to bob dylan|brother sister relationship|father son relationship|homelessness|car collision|friendship|jewish|driving in snow|driving at night|u.s. merchant marines|audition|unwanted pregnancy|abortion|title appears in writing|greenwich village manhattan new york city|year 1961|flashback|recording studio|recording|record player|hitchhiking|pregnancy|sleeping on a couch|couch|entering through a window|subway|cat|bar|concert|song|singing|folk music|guitar playing|guitarist|guitar player|title spoken by character|character name in title|character says thank god|
AKAs Titles:
Argentina - Inside Llewyn Davis: Balada de un hombre comn
Bulgaria (Bulgarian title) - ˜‚инки‚ ›Žин ”ейви
Brazil - Inside Llewyn Davis: Balada de um Homem Comum
Chile - Inside Llewyn Davis: Balada de un hombre comn
Estonia - Llewyn Davise ballaad
Spain - A propsito de Llewyn Davis
France - Inside Llewyn Davis
Greece - Inside Llewyn Davis
Hungary - Llewyn Davis vilga
Israel (Hebrew title) - Be'tokh Llewyn Davis
Italy - A proposito di Davis
Lithuania - Groja Liuvinas Deivisas
Mexico - Balada de un hombre comn
Peru - Balada de un hombre comn
Poland - Co jest grane, Davis?
Portugal - A Propsito de Llewyn Davis
Serbia - U glavi Luina Dejvisa
Russia - ’нƒ‚€и ›ŒŽина ”виа
Slovenia - Llewyn Davis
Turkey (Turkish title) - Sen Sarkilarini Syle
Uruguay - Balada de un hombre comn
Venezuela - Balada de un hombre comn
Release Dates:
Certifications:
Argentina:13 / Australia:MA15+ / Brazil:12 / Canada:14A (British Columbia) / Germany:6 / Hong Kong:IIB / Hungary:16 / Ireland:15A / Japan:G / Mexico:B / Netherlands:6 / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:NC-16 / South Korea:15 / Switzerland:12 / UK:15 / USA:R (certificate #47939)
Movie Details:
MOVIE
