Watched: Inside Llewyn Davis
It’s been months since I’ve watched a film where it’s ended and I’ve wanted more, not because it’s unsatisfying or too short but because I just want more of a good thing - Inside Llewyn Davis is one of those. I want to watch it again. I probably will.
It’s delightful in how gloomy it is - and I mean gloom as a concrete characteristic, not just a general narrative listlessness. Nothing happens in this film, but it fails to happen just so melancholically and beautifully that you don’t care.
And Llewyn himself - oh, man, he’s a shit. It’s funny, because the things that happen to him - a couple of mishaps with a cat, the death of his musical partner (preceding the film), and a couple of relationships turned sour - all lend sympathy to him, but he ruins each opportunity by handling each one terribly. What you’re left with is the sort of fascination that pervades a lot of the Coen films - where the characters and the plot collide in ways that never fail to interest, even as they emotionally repulse.
There is heart to this film, despite all of this; like most of the directors’ previous work, though, it’s in an unconventional place. Here, it’s the music - almost entirely performed live in full by the actors, and it shows. Oscar Isaac is an apathetic moron for the most part, but when he picks up his guitar, he’s transformed - the delicate finger-picking and impressive scope in his vocals add a flavour to the film that’s not unwelcome.
In the end, nothing of note ends up happening, even as it threatens to - there are a few elliptical moments in this film, not least in the final moments - but that’s really part of the point. It’s a finely-detailed snapshot, but to aspire to something more than that would be unpleasantly grandiose. Ending with a whimper is the closest Llewyn can get to redemption. That’s enough.