Inside Llewyn Davis, Blu-ray (2013/2015)

by | Jan 19, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Another Criterion remastering, this time of a classic Coen Bros. film.

Inside Llewyn Davis, Blu-ray (2013/2015)

Directors: Ethan & Joel Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, John Goodman,
Video: 1.85:1 for 16:9 1080p HD color
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English
Studio: CBS Films/ The Criterion Collection 794 [1/19/16]
Extras: New commentary track with authorus Robert Christgau, David Hajdu & Sean Wilentz, New conversation between Guillermo del Toro and the Coen Bros., Inside Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) – a 43-min. documentary, Another Day Another Time (2013) – Inside Llywen Davis tribute concert with Joan Baez & others – 101 min., New conversation between producer T. Bone Burnett and the Coens about folk music, the Greenwich Village early 60s folk scene with Elijah Wald, Sunday – short film on the 1961 police clash in Washington Square Park, Trailers, Poster & essay by film critic Kent Jones
Length: 104 min.
Rating: ****

The Coen Brothers like to do films about the humorous side of losers, and in this case it is a folk singer barely making a living on the peripheries of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 60s. He’s irascible, rude and self-defeating. He spends his nights on available couches of friends that he finds. One of the funniest scenes for me is when Lleweyn stays at an apartment with a cat and the door closes behind him as the cat escapes. He is stuck carrying the cat with him but eventually loses the cat. Then while in a coffee shop he thinks he sees the cat on the sidewalk and chases it to catch it. However, once he returns it to its supposed owner, it is not their cat.

What makes the film unusual and true to the period is that all the folk performers, including Llewyn Davis actually perform and sing themselves. The group spent much time recording all their music before the actual film was shot. John Goodman is good as a nasty old guy in the back of a car Llewyn takes to get to Chicago to try to get work.

It’s a circular odyssey (it says the original cat’s name is Ullyses, but I never heard that in the film) thru an unpleasant winter in NY and Chicago landscapes. Seems nothing good ever happens to Llewyn, but folk fans will love it. And although I spent some time at that period in Greenwich Village I found it perfectly accurate although I generally dislike folk music.

—John Sunier

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