Following their remake of True Grit, auteur siblings Joel and Ethan Coen have found further inspiration from the 1960s with Inside Llewyn Davis.

A perfect companion piece to A Serious Man, the Coens’ flawless script finds the comedy in tragedy as Davis’ luck dissipates. The supporting cast brilliantly realise their characters’ eccentricities, while Isaac himself soars in an Oscar-worthy performance.

The use of colour and light evocatively visualises the setting with a dreamlike sense of nostalgia, and the full-length musical numbers both epitomise the range of folk music that defined the era while capturing the emotion of the scene.

Elegiac yet hilarious, beautiful yet melancholy, Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the Coens’ finest films to date. An immersive depiction of the period populated by well-defined characters, the narrative explores the themes of consequence and loneliness with darkly comic humour in a phenomenal film.

Rating: 5/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund

DIRECTOR: Joel and Ethan Coen

WRITER: Joel and Ethan Coen

SYNOPSIS: Set during the folk music revival in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961, the film follows a struggling folk singer as he tries to make ends meet.

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