- The Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis contains a scene that is so funny that I've already watched it three times. I have no intention of ever rewatching the rest of the film, but this scene will stick with me forever. In it, the eponymous folk guitarist Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) is sitting in on a recording session with fellow musicians Jim Berkey (Justin Timberlake) and Al Cody (Adam Driver). The novelty song they're recording is called "Please Mr. Kennedy," and it's a protest song written by Berkey from the point of view of an astronaut being sent into space. The idea that an astronaut would protest going to space is completely hilarious (as is the band's name The John Glenn Singers), but it is Driver's performance as the bass who adds "Outer!", "Space!", and "Uh, oh!" to the background track that really got me. Needless to say, this is the song that will pop into my mind the next time I see Kylo Ren.
- For me, the rest of the film comes across as a folk-music variation on Barton Fink. The utterly dedicated artist this time around is Llewyn, the wife he sleeps with is Jean Berkey (Carey Mulligan), the fast-talking producers have been replaced with brusque agents (Jerry Grayson, F. Murray Abraham), and the abrasive substance abuser and threatening interloper have been merged into...hey, whaddya know, John Goodman! The period has been moved up from the 1940's to the 1960's, and the New York apartment hallways prove to be much narrower than those of Los Angeles hotels. Novelty songs and uninspired folk rock are the new "wrestling pictures," I suppose.
- Whereas the character of Barton Fink was unlikeable primarily because of his humorless narrow-mindedness, Llewyn Davis is more of a self-described asshole. We first encounter him getting beaten up in an alley and eventually discover that this eruption of brutality was largely justified. He demonstrates very little respect for other musicians, with the possible exceptions of Jean and his recently deceased singing partner, Mike. A perpetual couch surfer, Llewyn rotates through the homes of Jim and Jean, Al Cody, his own sister (Jeanine Serralles), and the eternally patient Gorfiens (Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett) in an attempt to spread out the damage he does to everyone's lives. Example damages include losing the Gorfiens' cat, retrieving the wrong tabby, and subsequently hitting the replacement with a car. It's also possible that Llewyn impregnated Jean, who refers to him as "King Midas's idiot brother" for his tendency to turn everything he touches into shit. Fortunately, Llewyn already knows a doctor who performs abortions. That's our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen.
- Paradoxically, the most impressive and least dramatically compelling parts of the film are the more serious musical performances in which Isaac, Timberlake, Mulligan, and Stark Sands do a really outstanding job with the music, often performing in a single take. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel helps these scenes considerably, too, by carefully capturing the cumulative effects of a smoking audience in a small venue. The various life pitfalls over which Llewyn constantly trips start off interesting enough, but after his fourth or fifth tragic screwup, you kind of get the idea. When Bob Dylan (played by Ben Pike) pops in near the film's end to play a set at The Gaslight Cafe, it's the punchline to the cosmic joke that the Coens have been playing on Llewyn for the entire film. Like most of their jokes, it's not as funny or thought-provoking as they think it is.
- Al Cody's album is entitled "Five and Twenty Questions" and looks like an album of the same name by Mark Spoelstra. Uh, oh!
