Synopsis: Set during the New York folk music scene in the early 60's Llewyn Davis is attempting a solo career after the death of his singing partner.
Stan's thoughts: This film felt excruciating and not in a good way. At the beginning we see Llewyn (Oscar Isaacs) being beaten up which all seems a bit harsh. Initially he comes across as one of those hapless characters that things never go quite right for. This evolves into something more annoying as he never quite grasps the opportunities presented to him and he increasingly become obnoxious so that when the elliptical plot returns to the opening scene I could help thinking 'put a boot in for me'.
Essentially it feels like a very long time to take a character from idiot to asshole. Had a conversation on Twitter about the point of the 'John Goodman' sequence when Llewyn goes on a road trip to Chicago to which the conclusion was that our protagonist was as bored as we the audience were with what was going on in New York and so decided to get out for a bit.
I normally like slow, quiet films but I quickly lost any care for Llewyn and as a result it just felt dull, dull, dull. I know people that really liked it though so perhaps it's just one of those marmite films.
Ratings
- Stan's: 35%
- IMDB: 78%
- Metascore: 92%
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
- RT audience rating: 76%
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