Movie · 2013 · Drama, Music · 1h 45m · R · English
Curator score: 8.8/10 (559.2K ratings)
A guitar. A cat. And a New York winter.
Overview
In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.8/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 4.02/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 93
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Production
StudioCanal, Anton Capital Entertainment, Mike Zoss Productions
Cast
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett, Max Casella, Jerry Grayson, Jeanine Serralles, Adam Driver, Stark Sands, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Alex Karpovsky, Helen Hong, Bradley Mott, Michael Rosner, Bonnie Rose, Jack A. O'Connell, Ricardo Cordero, Sylvia Kauders
Curator Review
Verdict
A melancholy, darkly funny character study about talent, failure, and the stubborn dignity of keeping on. It’s less a rise-and-fall music story than a portrait of a gifted man trapped in his own loop, with exceptional performances, sharp writing, and a lived-in 1960s folk scene atmosphere.
Best for
viewers who like bleakly funny character studies
fans of prestige dramas with strong music-world texture
people drawn to antiheroes and emotional ambiguity
Coen brothers devotees
audiences who appreciate understated, bittersweet endings
Skip if
you want an inspirational underdog story
you prefer plot-heavy narratives with clear catharsis
you dislike unsympathetic or self-sabotaging protagonists
you want a conventional backstage music biopic
Overview
Inside Llewyn Davis is a rueful, beautifully controlled film about a man with enough talent to keep going and not enough luck, discipline, or emotional flexibility to get out of his own way. The Coens turn Greenwich Village into a cold, indifferent maze, and Llewyn’s repeated missteps feel both comic and tragic at once.
Worth noting
Oscar Isaac gives the kind of performance that makes self-destruction look exhausting rather than glamorous. The film understands the difference between being gifted and being successful, and it keeps circling that gap with patience, wit, and a deep sense of melancholy.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the movie’s refusal to turn pain into uplift. It’s funny, but never easy; sad, but never sentimental. If you’re in the mood for a music film that feels more like a bruise than a victory lap, this is one of the best of the decade.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Karsten (5★) · 6337 likes
Sometimes the exact movie you needed at that exact moment naturally comes along and there's really no better feeling in the world. Don't know where Inside Llewyn Davis has been all my life, but I'm glad it showed up now.
kai (5★) · 5369 likes
excuse me — i am homeless. i’m bisexual. i have depression. and i’m new in town.
davidehrlich (5★) · 3218 likes
a hell of a lot of truth in this. a hell of a lot of truth. broad cuts at the divide between living & simply being alive, but perhaps more than anything else a gently devastating look at how people change (or how they don't). need to let this one kick around (and will surely revisit a ridiculous number of times over the years) but already comfortable saying that it's up there with the the Coen brothers' very best.
demi adejuyigbe (4.5★) · 3056 likes
When are the Coens going to admit that they are really just incredible record producers with a really good sense for dramatic irony
DirkH (5★) · 2957 likes
Glossing over the Coen's filmography confirms my immediate sentiment after finishing Inside Llewyn Davis. I have never been moved by one of their films. That is not what they do. They craft tales that shy the beaten path, fill them with semi-human characters and embrace the style they are working in wholeheartedly.
Inside Llewyn Davis has all the hallmarks of a Coen film. With one trump up its sleeve causing me to allow this film to grip me, shake me… more