The gift of T-Bone Burnett and the Coen brothers is one for the ages. Listen to full Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack on NPR. Don’t forget to listen to Please Mr. Kennedy, a true showstopper.
The Coens dip their toe in magical realism this time around with a deceptively “simple” story about a folk singer in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, you know, that movie you’ve been hearing about since May of this year? Though Please Mr. Kennedy is the one everyone remembers, I find myself most haunted by Dink’s Song, a mainstay of the folk era. It resonates partly because it’s the song they use in the trailer and one of the only ways to revisit this film is to watch the trailer. But the song itself is emblematic of the film – mournful, sweet, sad and a little weird.
S0 much of the success of Inside Llewyn Davis is on its unheralded star – Oscar Isaac – who sings and plays guitar – it was one of those odd twists of fate that Isaac found his way to this film – it was as though he’d prepared his whole life for it. Very rarely has role met actor to such an exquisite degree. It isn’t even so much his musical participation that makes this film but the look in his soulful eyes – his confusion at the world of “stuff one has to do” to make ends meet. He does what everyone else did back then – land in the city and hope things work out. If you show up and can sing — doesn’t that then equal success? Luck and timing have a bigger impact, in turns out, than even talent.
It is so like the Coens to take that Dave Van Ronk album cover where a cat mysteriously appears without explanation and turn that into a meditation on success. It does seem inexplicable that only one master emerged from Greenwich Village during that era – and his star was so bright it mostly eclipsed the others. Who but the Coen brothers would have the intelligence and sensitivity to even think about that alternative path? Who but the Coen brothers would be smart enough to bring T-Bone Burnett on board to ensure that the music was this good?
Inside Llewyn Davis is pure pleasure to sit through, which explains why, after seeing it twice, I can’t wait to watch it again. Moreover, once I have it at my disposal, be it on screener or DVD, I will watch it repeatedly throughout the rest of my life, as I do Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading and The Big Lebowski. They’re the kind of filmmakers that remind me to pinch myself that I’m lucky enough to be living through the time when they’re making movies. You know, just saying.
