7/10

Inside Llewyn Davis is kind of like a new song by a famous artist (The Coen Brothers). It’s got a good rhythm (Screenplay) and good characters (Narration), but it’s not the best from the artist or nearly the kind of songs you fell in love with (No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou). With that said, Oscar Isaac is a Best Lead Actor front runner when the Oscars come in March. He gives an amazingly warmhearted and dry witted performance as Llewyn Davis, a folk song writer struggling to stay afloat in 1961 New York. The first hour of this film kept in contention with some of the best films i have seen this year. It’s in the 2nd hour that the film begins to lose steam. We find out that some things have happened in Llewyn’s life that he has to make right. Mainly impregnating the girlfriend (Carey Mulligan) of a fellow friend and artist (Justin Timberlake). Mulligan is outstanding in the role of the harsh and negative girl who doesn’t quite know what she sees in Davis. My biggest problem with this film aside from the ending (Which i will get to later), is that many of the questions were never answered. I don’t want to spoil anything, but we never find out about the abortion or a couple of other things by the movie’s end. It’s like they had a great story and abandoned some of the parts to make an artsy ending. The ending itself just happens anti-climatic. When the screen goes black, you will ask yourself if that really is the end. It’s a shame too because you really care about these characters. They deserved a better ending than the one they are given. It’s amazing that with all i have said that The Coen Brothers still put together a decent film. Some great positives is the setting of each scene with incredible lighting. Also a score that i will be picking up in stores that should win an Oscar. Inside Llewyn Davis is not a film for everyone. Nothing huge or groundbreaking happens in this film. But if you can sit through almost 2 hours of beautiful songs with deep characters whose questions are not always answered, then this cup of tea is for you, friend. It’s also pretty cool to hear Akron mentioned a couple of times in the film