Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
    Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake,
    John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham
The Coen Brothers go back to the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s to create a study in self-inflicted desolation about a musician whose career has stalled out between club gigs that don't pay and an album that won't sell. It probably doesn't help that he's a gloomy, anti-social, self-destructive prick. The movie follows him in a rambling, episodic way as he scuffles around New York, sleeping on couches and trying to decide whether he wants to stick it out, or go back to sea with the merchant marine. There's also a side trip to Chicago, which is like a Coen Brothers version of the road trip from hell, with a chain-smoking Peter Orlovsky enthusiast behind the wheel and an obnoxious cripple in the back seat. The cripple's played by John Goodman, I guess because in a Coen Brothers movie there's got to be a cameo for John Goodman somewhere. When I watched this, I didn't like it very much. I just didn't like any of the characters. Then a couple days later, I caught the trailer when I went to see another film, and it looked pretty funny. So I guess it's a comedy, all cold streets and wet shoes and lost cats and miserable people, painted over in a deep shade of Coen Brothers black. If you don't have enough despair in your life, and you're a fan of what they're done before, it's probably worth the risk.