The title of the Coen brother's latest film doesn't appear on screen (at least, not in the traditional sense) throughout it's run time, but frankly, even if it did, I'd suggest you'd be hard pressed to remember it's name anyway further down the line. There's a theory that the Coen's output is either "one for them" (i.e the audience) or "one for us", with the "us" usually belonging amongst the weaker of their films. Inside Llewyn Davis doesn't break that trend, though in terms of its cinematic quality it's not bad at all. The acting and production values are spot on, but the film has a major hurdle to overcome in the fact that the main character is incredibly difficult to like. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a down on his luck folk singer in early 1960's New York, but as the Coen's spend the entire film basically showing us what a complete selfish arsehole he is, you'll just be thinking that he deserves all he gets. Though based on the real life story of folk singer Dave Van Rook, the film itself doesn't really have much of a plot and it's more of a mood piece. Plot lines that do show promise (the suicide of Davis' musical partner) are not really explored and all that happens is we just go from scene to scene watching Davis give effrontery a bad name. On the plus side there are a few decent one-liners and a mix up with a cat ("Where's his scrotum?") provides a chuckle. Overall though, much like John Goodman's part as an odious jazz musician, it's all just a bit pointless. Plus, if the Coen's think people will warm to a character that abandons an injured cat, well, good luck with that. Rating: 5/10.
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