Another black and white movie -- also an unsuccessful "quest". Llewyn Davis is a folk singer in the the early 1960s. He is homeless and sleeps on various friends' couches. During a week in winter, nothing goes right, and his attitude doesn't help. He sings as well as anyone (and there's quite a bit of music) but there are a lot of anyones and he's lost in time and place and rootless. He's responsible enough to care for a cat and to pay for an abortion of a girl who doesn't know if the baby is his or her husband's. He has the idea that he can make it as a singer and chases small chances, had misjudged a manager and seems mostly a lost soul.a
This being a Coen Brothers movie (written, produced, directed) the dark, quirky story is at least told with an integrity that I didn't see in
Nebraska. Here all the casting is spot on, from the various people whose houses he crashes in to the ride he gets to Chicago to the incidental people on the NY subway. The black comic lines are appropriate. I left feeling neither up nor entirely down and reasonably convinced that not having a strong taste for folk music, either in the '60s or now, is a good choice on my part.
2 comments:
I get a bit tired of downer movies if they don't have at least one life line thrown at the audience. Perhaps I will bypass this movie for now. thanks for the good review -- barbara
I imagine many people will feel that way, Barbara.
I'm currently dealing with a paradox. I was told that the trailers were in color, but what I saw was definitely black and white. B&W certainly is appropriate for the story.
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