Wednesday 16 October 2013

REVIEW - INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS


It's all a bit of fun, all at Llewyn Davis' expense. Is that not what musicians do? Toil for our enjoyment? Is that not what filmmakers do? Well, you try finding where in Inside Llewyn Davis it feels like the Coen brothers had to toil to get our money's worth. I'm not sure such a place exists. A sprightly film about hopelessness and destitution, essentially, it's also about music, and not in any self-absorbed, clever-clogs, meta kind of manner. Working once more with the incomparable T-Bone Burnett, the Coens ingratiate music into Inside Llewyn Davis with reverence and affection. The film itself rolls to a standstill every now and then to pause and indulge in a music number - at least it would, were these numbers not invariably the film's most compelling. Whether or not they express more than communicating simple harmonious satisfaction, and you know the Coens would never be so arch as to suggest one way or another, they're memorable and joyous. Somehow, so too is the relentless failure that is the existence of Llewyn Davis, a comic character in context, though only in this context. He has no present, and no future, and there's no more to be read into it. He's a flat-out loser, albeit an intelligent, talented, affable loser with enormous potential. And just look at how far that potential gets him. He winds up back where he started, ever on the cusp of achieving that one break that could set him up for life. Does he constantly miss out because he resigns himself to the beatings life delivers him? Or does he resign himself to them because he constantly misses out? Working with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, the Coens seep their film in an air of nostalgia, for a specific time and place which likely most viewers never experienced, and yet can almost touch and feel and breathe in on that screen. If they occasionally strain a little too hard for a gravitas that jars with the film's otherwise more relaxed tone, it's hard to argue against their intentions. They're the Coen brothers, mate, and sure it's all a bit of fun.

2 comments: