Review of Inside Llewyn Davis, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

If you’re new here and found this blog through the mysterious powers of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I’m a dedicated reader and movie watcher who thought to turn this website into a little digital archive of sorts.

I was watching and reading so much that I wanted to keep track of it all, so I began blogging as a way to keep these books as memories somewhat forever.

That said, I recently fell into a period of unemployment, and this blog was a solace for me. Not only was it a way to make a little bit of money when there was nothing else coming my way really, but I found, after getting my finances in order, that I enjoyed sitting down to write blog posts when I had nothing else to do in my day.

If you like this review in the end, feel free to click around. This is my digital home, so I’m happy to have you here.

One of my many talents is procrastinating on movies and books for years. If you ever look at my Goodreads or Letterboxd, I have thousands of books/films on there. Many have been on those lists for years, and I probably will not get to them in my lifetime.

That said, there are some I do get to throughout the years. Inside Llewyn Davis is a movie I’ve been meaning to watch because it was Oscar Isaac’s breakthrough, and I do genuinely think he is a good actor. But man, I never really got around to watching it, like so many other things in my life.

When I entered my funemployed era I ended up checking off quite a few movies, including this one. Considering the sheer amount of backlog I have, this post probably isn’t coming out until May 2025, but I will have finally watched this movie as of December 2025.

Enough rambling! Let’s get into the review.

A young folk singer tries to find his path in 1960s New York City.

This movie takes place in 1961, in a New York City that hasn’t gentrified yet. Our main character is Llewyn Davis, and he’s a folk singer trying to make it in the Village. However, his album isn’t selling, and he doesn’t really have anywhere to live besides his friends’ couches. Things get even worse when a guy comes after him in an alley, leaving him beaten and bruised.

That’s not even the cherry on this cake. When he wakes up, he’s at his friends’ house, and he lets out their cat by accident. He takes the cat, now locked out himself, and goes to his friend’s apartment. The next morning the cat then escapes out the window, and his friend Jean asks Llewyn to pay for her abortion.

He goes to his sister for money, but she instead gives him a box of his own stuff. She’s sick of him using her as storage, but he wants her to get rid of it. She offers him the chance to be a Merchant Marine again for money, but Llewyn goes off and records jingles with his friends. He doesn’t want royalties so he can pay for the abortion, but it turns out he didn’t even need the money because he paid for an abortion for someone else, and she didn’t go through with it.

Llewyn then finds the cat and goes to their apartment. They’re having a dinner party and want him to song, but then he causes some friction when Mrs. Gorfein sings his melody and he snaps. She then brings the cat out, tells him its not their cat, and he leaves with it.

Then he goes off to Chicago with a poet and a musician, but then one has an overdose along the way. A police officer arrests the poet, and Llewyn leaves behind the cat and the musician in the car. He continues to Chicago, auditions for someone who wants him to be a part of a group, and he says no.

He returns to New York, but hits a cat on the way back home. He uses his money to go back to the Merchant Marines, but then realizes his license was int he box his sister got rid of. He can’t afford a new license, then lands a new gig performing. While there, he harasses a woman, is kicked out, and then heads back to the Gorfeins despite leaving with the fake cat last time.

We learn his jingle is a hit with huge royalties, and their cat came home. He missed a huge opportunity not taking royalties, but this is the life of Llewyn Davis for sure. We then go back to the opening scene, where Llewyn is performing again and is told a friend of the manager is in the alley waiting for him. He leaves as Bob Dylan performs, is beat by the man in the alley, and he tells the guy goodbye as he gets into a taxi.

Overall Thoughts

If we’re going to be honest, if you told me to imagine New York City during this time, this is a film that would exemplify it. I work with a bunch of older native New Yorkers, and they would tell me about how gritty everything was back then. My boss even tells me about how men would go to the playground to watch the kids and do their thing in the corner.

This isn’t the most entertaining film, but I found it to be a worthy character study. Isaac does a good job with the material and brings this character to life; no other character in the film really stood out to me besides him.

I’d say this is a movie that synthesizes so many themes and notes in a really decent fashion. I really liked that fact at the end, and how it manages to be something that feels true to a life. I’ve read so much about the art scene during this time, and it feels true.

So go watch this if you’re interested in the material. You may find it worth it!

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