Fake & phony Folk

Zettelhead

Because there is so much wrong about this movie it is hard to choose with which flaw to start with.

It never feels like 1961. It never looks like 1961. It doesn't sound like 1961. It does not deal with the Greenwich Village folk music scene.  It is not a portrait of an artist. It has no story. It has no arc of suspense. It has no character to connect with. It has no development of characters. It has no…

Okay:

Let us start with the main character and its impersonator: Oscar Isaac. Every minute of the movie he looks like an H&M-Model of 2014. His stylish beard is 2014. His frustrated and cynical habitus is 2014. Even the way he wears is shawl is 2014.  His central conflict is… that he screws up everything. Not to forget about his ex-partner that threw himself of the bridge, but there is no story developing out of this. So the central conflict is… that he is a depressed asshole? But not only the script leaves him as a blank sheet of (grey) paper. Also Oscar Isaac is not able to give his character any depth. He seems to be indifferent about anything: his ex-lovers, his parents, his friends, the political issues of the time and even about his music.

And here the roots of next big error are hidden: The folk scene of the early sixties was most vivid, new, exciting, political, enthusiastic, social. People had an attitude! Llewyn Davis has none.

The folk scene in this movie seems to be some dull melting pot for bored ridiculous freaks sitting around in dark cellars doing nothing else except whining and selling out. You never get the feeling of it to be the musical outcome of the beat generations efforts and the preparation for the groundbreaking things to come in the late sixties! In one dialogue Llewyn Davis even says that he considers himself to be part of the „entertainment business"! And that is what the folk scene of that time absolutely was NOT! When Dylan electrified his sound in 65 he was accused to go commercial and to become a part of the entertainment business. A lot of people actually hated him for this. In their eyes he became something that wasn't "folk" anymore!

Well… enough. This movie does not deserve to waste more of my time.

In the end the whole flick looks like it was made to demonstrate how depressing, dull and meaningless live has been before the invention of the smart phone...

I hope the Coen Brothers will recover and create descent movies again.

score 1/10

Zettelhead 10 June 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3031626/