Inside Llewyn Davis [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Overview

Idealistic young folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) struggles to make a name for himself in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s in this fictional period drama from Joel and Ethan Coen. As the harsh winds of winter blow through the streets of New York City, the homeless singer/songwriter drifts from couch to couch in search of his big break. Feeling that he's finally burned his bridge with longtime friends and fellow folk singers Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan), and convinced that his recent work on a novelty song will lead him nowhere, Llewyn hitches a ride to Chicago with the mysterious Roland Turner (John Goodman) and his taciturn valet Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund) on a mission to audition for famed impresario Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). Meanwhile, Llewyn discovers that he himself may be the biggest obstacle on his arduous road to success.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/11/2014
UPC:	0043396428591
Original Release:	2013
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICT
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:44:00
Sales rank:	68,378

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Oscar Isaac	Llewyn Davis
Carey Mulligan	Jean Berkey
John Goodman	Roland Turner
Garrett Hedlund	Johnny Five
Justin Timberlake	Jim Berkey
F. Murray Abraham	Bud Grossman
Jeanine Serralles	Joy
Ethan Phillips	Mitch Gorfein
Robin Bartlett	Lillian Gorfein
Max Casella	Pappi Corsicato
Jerry Grayson	Mel Novikoff
Adam Driver	Al Cody
Stark Sands	Troy Nelson
Alex Karpovsky	Marty Green
Helen Hong	Janet Fung
Bradley Mott	Joe Flom
Michael Rosner	Arlen Gamble
Bonnie Rose	Dodi Gamble
Jack O'Connell	Actor
Ricardo Cordero	Actor
Sylvia Kauders	Actor
Ian Jarvis	Actor
Diane Findlay	Actor
Ian Blackman	Actor
Steve Routman	Actor
Susan Blommaert	Actor
Amelia McClain	Actor
James Colby	Actor
Charlotte Booker	Actor
Mike Houston	Actor
Samuel Haft	Actor,Man in Gate of Horn
Jason Shelton	Actor
Frank Ridley	Actor
John Ahlin	Actor
Jake Ryan	Actor
Declan Bennett	Actor
Erik Hayden	Actor
Daniel Everidge	Actor
Jeff Takacs	Actor
Nancy Blake	Actor
Stephen Payne	Actor
Roberto Lopez	Actor
Benjamin Pike	Actor
T Bone Burnett	Composer

Technical Credits

Ethan Coen

Ethan Coen	Screenwriter,Screenwriter,Producer,Producer
Scott Rudin	Producer
Robert Graf	Executive Producer,Producer
Olivier Courson	Executive Producer,Producer
Ron Halpern	Executive Producer,Producer
Bruno Delbonnel	Camera Operator
Ellen Chenoweth	Casting
Peter Kurland	Sound Mixer,Sound Mixer,Sound Effects
Jeff Hewitt-Davis	Stunts
Steve Kirshoff	Special Effects Supervisor
Paul Urmson	Sound Effects
Oliver Armstrong	Special Effects
Marko A. Costanzo	Sound Effects
Kenton Jakub	Sound Effects
Bobby Johanson	Sound Effects
Randall L. Johnson	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

The Coen brothers' Oscar triumph No Country for Old Men was, in many ways, a revisiting of Fargo that purposefully left out the humanity embodied by Marge's final speech to the killer. If the Coens are now at a stage where they are revisiting their old material in order to express a darker sensibility, it's tempting to think of Inside Llewyn Davis as their update of the already bleak Barton Fink -- an exploration of an artist deluding himself into thinking he's a better person than he is. Oscar Isaac stars as the title character, a talented folk singer and guitarist whose career has grown stagnant after his former performing partner committed suicide. The prickly Llewyn crashes with various friends on different nights, struggles to get paying gigs, and deals with the news that he's impregnated a female friend (Carey Mulligan) who is involved with another man. After landing some quick cash by doing a recording session, Llewyn takes a road trip to Chicago in the hope of winning over a music impresario (F. Murray Abraham) who might be able to give him his big break (or at least a little more money). As always with Joel and Ethan, the movie works well as a dark comedy. As the universe conspires to make Davis miserable, we're encouraged to laugh because he does so little to alleviate that condition. He's unlikable, but in a different way than Barton Fink turned out to be unlikable. Barton revealed himself to be a poseur who only had one good idea, whereas Llewyn doesn't even sing his own words but just interprets the works of others. He simply doesn't have anything to say, and that may be the biggest reason why the Coens leave him to a cruel fate. Isaac, given so little to make his character sympathetic, delivers a performance that humanizes Llewyn in ways the script doesn't make obvious. Sure, he uses people and he's a congenital screwup, but he's also trying to get his life together to the best of his ability -- it's just that his skill in this regard is pointedly lacking. While it's certainly an emotionally downbeat film, Inside Llewyn Davis is often terrifically funny. Mulligan has a series of foulmouthed diatribes aimed at Llewyn that give the movie a hard comedic edge, Coen regular John Goodman turns in a memorable cameo as a voodoo-practicing jazz performer during the road trip to the Midwest, and the song Davis records in the studio -- "Please Mr. Kennedy" -- is a pitch-perfect homage to the tunes of the time period. For that matter, all of the music finds a balance between sounding authentic and being lyrically witty. Joel and Ethan certainly sweeten the bitter pill they want you to swallow. As they've evolved as filmmakers and writers, the Coens' worldview -- never all that rosy to begin with -- has grown more pessimistic and melancholy. After the despairing three-movie run of No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man, it appeared as if they had lost any hope for humanity. They seemed to be finding a new course with True Grit, their biggest box-office success, but with its disquieting finale and clear-eyed appraisal of human failing and weakness, Inside Llewyn Davis feels much more like their genuine follow-up to A Serious Man.