Inside Llewyn Davis

The saddest film by the Coen brothers with their unrivaled, least sympathetic protagonist. It sounds like a bittersweet folk hit about a guy who was out of it his entire life. You know exactly where the verse, the chorus and the specific rhyme belong. And that's the power of a simple song that crept under my skin like frost and the purring of a cat. Nothing profound, just a beautiful experience that needs no explanation / defense. [85%] (02/13/2014)

At certain moments, the uncomfortably familiar feeling of being lost, weary, and lonely during the grayest American winter in many years. It could perhaps be argued that the muted colors go a little too far in the overall bleakness of the film, but to its credit it is constant in its mood throughout and doesn't really offer any way out that would otherwise kind of belie itself. A surreal journey of several days to Chicago, where time stretches out into a seemingly endless black mass from which there is no escape, as all around is a frost-covered wasteland bordered by cones of car lights, is the Coen brothers' darkest period. "I'm tired. I thought I just needed a night's sleep but it's more than that." (04/09/2018)

Llewyn and I missed each other - not completely, but we just walked along the same sidewalk, and he talked and sang and I understood him, in every ironic gloss of his miserable self-centered life. Finally, he stopped, disappeared into a side alley, and then cried out that he didn't give a damn, that it suited him and he'd stay stuck there while I went on. (02/20/2014)

And they didn't disappoint again! Those Coens are some crazy bros. Inside Llewyn Davis is a wonderfully melancholic affair that manages to evoke smiles, laughter and moments of tense silence full of subtle emotions. All this accompanied by an excellent soundtrack, perfect actors and an incredibly great passage of the journey to Chicago, in which John Goodman shines in particular and which is one of the best things the Coens have ever written and directed. I was waiting for Bob Dylan to appear in the film the entire time, and still nothing... Then at the end... Or was it at the beginning? Go see for yourself. (03/26/2014)

Even though the Coen brothers maintain their poetic style and this film has absolutely great music, it's not something I would consider exceptional. The Coens are riding their absurd drama about a singer, we follow his fate, his "success" over one week, but to make the impression stronger, like him, we also do not find a resolution. Unfortunately, this isn't a film that captivated me, no matter how well it might be filmed. (02/09/2014)