Last night I saw Inside Llewyn Davis. It's one of the Coen brothers' intense movies. While it does focus on music like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it doesn't have the lightness that film had at times. It's the story of a fictional folk singer, Llewyn Davis, who's an unlikable character.
I found the themes interesting. What stood out most for me was the choice to make the lead role a musician who isn't on the road to fame, who is good but not exceptional, who is struggling with personal issues and botching all his relationships in the process.
I enjoyed Justin Timberlake's performance as a clean-cut, hard-working nice guy who's in complete contrast to Llewyn. The scene where the two record a novelty song in the style of Space Oddity was a particular high point.
The soundtrack also stands on its own. I found myself singing Five Hundred Miles afterwards. Actors Oscar Isaac (Llewyn), Carey Mulligan and Stark Sands did their own vocals. Isaac arranged Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song) with Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons. The piece carries all the difficult emotions at the centre of story.
The poster shows Llewyn carrying an orange cat under his arm and the cat is definitely a character in the movie. Before the show I was waiting for my sister in a mall. There was a man standing beside the escalator with a cat, also orange, in a green knitted sweater. He was there for quite a while and he got all kinds of reactions. In the end was told to leave by security guards. The whole thing was unstaged.
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