Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis is at once both a painfully honest portrait of what it feels like to be artistically spent, and a beautiful artistic masterwork impossibly rich with greatness. The story of a frustrated folk singer in what may be the last week of his struggling career, the film is absurdly packed with cinematic riches, from Oscar Isaac’s astoundingly nuanced, lived-in work in the title role, to the transfixing evocation of the music and culture of the early 1960’s New York folk-scene, to the top-notch supporting cast and brilliantly immersive cinematography. And in true Coen Brothers fashion, it is also one of the funniest films of the year.
Yet beneath all this lies an even deeper, more impactful level of greatness, for as a study of how a person may be forced into artistic exhaustion, to reach a point where one wonders if one has anything more to give or knows even how or why to give it, Inside Llewyn Davis is as unflinchingly honest and emotionally genuine as any film I’ve seen all year, and stands as one of 2013’s foremost cinematic pleasures.
Inside Llewyn Davis is now playing in limited release. Read my full review of the film here and check out our video interview with the cast below.
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