Alas, the Oscar rage continues.
The complete infatuation with American Hustle is profoundly confusing and now seemingly utterly ridiculous. As a standalone movie, it doesn’t have the weight to carry off such an impressive list of nominations. More incredulous (and much more to my point,) is that after watching the last snubbed film Inside Llewyn Davis, you wonder just how much the voters in the Academy have been smoking before pulling up the latest list of contenders.
Inside Llewyn Davis focuses on the lives of a folk singer in New York during the early sixties. After the death of his partner, Mike, Llewyn struggles to make it on his own after a mildly successful stint as a pairing. Making the rounds of cafes and couches, the scrounging Llewyn is gradually losing heart; adding to the money, home, dignity and decency already gone. Having made his friend’s girlfriend pregnant and on his last dime, he embarks on a journey to Chicago with a surly jazz musician in order to get the big break he had always dream of.
This is Coen comedy-drama at its best; funny a lot of the time yet poignant too. While the story is in itself simple (while full of a lot of nods here and there,) the investment in the characters alone is pure genius. Weighting our Llewyn with a strange likeable and despicable quality, Inside Llewyn Davis becomes a masterful depiction of a fraught artist. It hums in a vicious cycle that spirals further down. Instead of winging out a convoluted plot, the Coen’s, instead, weave an introspective look at a man who is losing his grip on a dream that has worn him out. This doesn’t need much in plot (and there are times where the focus on the plot seems fumbled), it is the depth around Llewyn that anchors the film here.
With the help of some astonishing cinematography from Bruce Delbonnal and a soundtrack full of quite soul, heart and anguish, Inside Llewyn Davis is a pragmatic and powerful piece that would resonate with any struggling artist. Because their world, our world, isn’t as The X Factor would portray it; it is a battle against the odds, a penny in the ocean and a spark struggling to catch fire. Head down to your local Open Mic night and see people like Llewyn scrapping by because it is their passion. Inside Llewyn Davis has captured that spirit, or rather, that loss of spirit.
It is an excellent swan song to those who have tried or are trying to make it.
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