Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen
USA, 2013
The Coen brothers latest film, Inside Llewyn Davis, is evidence of an evolution in the Coen brothers' filmography. Having had early success with such films as Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Fargo, they're latest releases have been a different breed of film. While the earlier bunch focused on primarily the dark humor and idiosyncratic lives of charactes whose actions while deplorable had only the best at heart, their latest incarnations are at times far from humorous and focus on characters who are a mixture of unlikable and intriguing only in their failures to be redeemed.
Inside Llewyn Davis is no different from these recent changes in cinema signature. The titular main character, portrayed wonderfully by Oscar Issac, is a struggling folk singer who has recently lost his friend and partner in music to suicide. Llewyn, who is constantly struggling to land on his feet - having no apartment, no money, no source of income - is waiting for something to happen to his career. However, very much like Waiting for Godot, the actions he takes himself are all an illusion in order to make the waiting and the trying mean something. At the end, when the audience realizes its for not, that this struggling character that we love/hate/feel ambivalent about returns to where he began with no change in character, we see that rather than evolving he just revolves around in the same purgatory and will continue to do so whether we choose to watch or not.
The reason why I mention previous Coen brothers movies is that if you're expecting another Fargo or Big Lebowski, this is far from it. Not to say you won't enjoy it. Inside Llewyn Davis lacks the fantastical, biting, sarcastic, dark humor, bureaucratic insanity typical of their earlier stories and characters. Like Heller's Catch-22, the moment where humor is found in the absurdity makes the message even more poignant. Their new films are an extension of this. Rather than focusing on the fantastical, they delve into the reality of the situation. They grasp the character in all their struggle and don't pretty it up for anyone. They part from the absurdist, Heller-esque, Joseph K, sense of storytelling and delve into a more idiosyncratic modernism inspired from the classics. This can be seen in No Country for Old Men - the aging officer fighting off time and the killer trying to control time.
Inside Llewyn Davis can be recognized in the same way. The character is real, he's not a caricature like H.I . McDonnough or Barton Fink. They don't rely on allegorical characters like Leonard Smalls or Bunny Lebowski. They focus on the real, the gruesome, the truth. Llewyn Davis is a selfish guy who strives to do better but falls back on old habits. The cyclical nature of the film contributes to this unending cycle and instead of changing or learning or living or dying he continues to wait in this purgatory of being.
Overall, the performances and music were intriguing and made you want to see more and know more about this character who seems not worthy of our attention, who you root for against everything he does, not because he's redeemable or will be redeemed but because he wants to be redeemed and knows he never will be. Inside Llewyn Davis is not for the classic Coen brothers lover, but rather for someone who wants to see their evolution of telling a story and creating a character.