Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake
Country: USA
Running Time: 104 mins
Year: 2013
StudioCanal are releasing simultaneous 4K Coen Brothers titles this month, covering their entire career: 1984’s Blood Simple and 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis. While Blood Simple is a precision made genre piece, Inside Llewyn Davis is a beautiful maturing of their singular style.
There have been times in their career when the Coens have been provocative, bordering on immature (not necessarily a criticism; when they remade The Ladykillers, largely considered an unlikable dud, they probably knew what they were doing and simply didn’t care). True Grit was utterly perfect, but even within their eclectic filmography, Inside Llewyn Davis is an outlier. It is something very special indeed.
For one thing, it transcends the notion of a plot. On paper, an impossible sell: Oscar Isaac’s Greenwich Village folk singer has no redemption arc. He isn’t having fun, and he achieves, well, sod all. The narrative loops like a ballad, trapping Llewyn in a cycle where grief over his late musical partner and sheer bad luck keep him locked out of life.
And yet, behind that seemingly drifting surface, the exact same machine that powered Blood Simple is quietly at work. There isn’t a hair out of place. Bruno Delbonnel’s slushy, monochrome palette (inspired by the chilled cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) and the decision to record Isaac’s raw, mesmerizing musical performances live on set root the entire piece in profound emotional weight. Make no mistake, Isaac is no slouch and is deliciously authentic.
Compared to the immediate, high-stakes thrills of Blood Simple, the prospect of Inside Llewyn Davis might seem daunting. The payoff isn’t obvious, yet it may well be their most generous film, and the one that rewards repeated viewings the most. The Coens’ well has been relatively quiet since, but if they exhausted what they wanted to achieve together while wandering through a chilly 1961 New York, they finished on an impossible high.
VIDEO
Bruno Delbonnel’s signature desaturated, milky winter palette is faithfully maintained. It’s a gorgeous diffused, soft, and hazy image, mimicking 1961 photography. HDR expands the shadows of dim cafes, overcast Greenwich Village slush, and gloomy night drives without crushing detail.
AUDIO
This brand new mix is demo material for live acoustic staging. Isaac’s solo guitar and vocal have an astonishing presence.
EXTRA FEATURES
As with Blood Simple we’re missing a couple of bits from the Criterion release, but otherwise, this is a solid package.
- NEW The Design of Inside Llewyn Davis with Jess Gonchor
- Making-Of
- Interview with Oscar Isaac
- Interview with Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake
- Interview with T. Bone Burnett
- Blu-Ray
- Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis Documentary