Wow. I don't know what to say after seeing this movie. As usual, I didn't read anything about "Inside Llewyn Davis", but the barrage of positive (if not giddy) reviews about the "best movie of the year", if not since the beginning of time, compelled me to go immediately.
And I don't get it. Even when I saw the previews and trailer, I was kind of puzzled because it just didn't appear to have a story. Well, it does have a story, but it's just a week in the life of folk singer Llewyn Davis. And this is quite disappointing for a Coen Brothers movie.
Coen Brothers movies are usually complex and packed with twists; this movie had none of that. In fact, this movie was the one thing Coen Brothers movies are NOT, and that is PREDICTABLE. I sat through the first hour thinking "okay, here is where everything goes off the rails and the craziness begins", but nothing crazy happened. The film is just weird, but not in a good way. Weird because it seemed like a 90-minute complaint; Davis' ex-girlfriend lambasting him about being pregnant, Davis complaining about merchant marine fees not being refunded, him getting upset about being asked to perform at a party, etc. Just one long litany of dreadful daily events, like a Woody Allen movie. With one difference: Woody Allen movies occasionally make me laugh at some absurdities. The absurdities in this movie can't really be called absurdities; more like just mildly annoying events.
