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Inside Llewyn Davis seems, on the surface, to be making a simple point: creating art is difficult and rarely turns out like the happy tales which adorn the lucky few who become successful and notable. Beneath this thin cover, we have utterly ghastly condemnation of human nature. The repugnant conclusion to the dark and often brilliant existentially despairing Coen oeuvre.
Absolutely none of the characters in the film display any noble traits whatsoever. The protagonist is a fairly good musician, who like so many in real life, can't and don't get the Big Break. From that bitter locus we have radiating out a dismal miasma of horrible people and horrible circumstances.
A cheating agent and his utterly callous secretary. A foul mouthed, perpetually angry and needlessly scathing love interest. A scolding and perpetually angry sister. A father who can't be bothered to speak. A lecherous vile club owner. Vapid, uninteresting contemporaries. Bitter and judgmental characters without punctuation or distraction.
It's an orgy of self-piteous, disappointed and disappointing schmucks. The environment is relentlessly cold, wintry and grey. It is miserable.
The protagonist's musical partner is understood to have committed suicide jumping from New York City's George Washington bridge prior to the events which transpire in the film. The parting shot in which the protagonist shouts "au revoir" after the taxi transporting away a shadowy, mephistophelian husband who, moments before, has savagely beaten the protagonist in an alley, can only be viewed as a suicide note.
The character has nothing left. His music is a failure. His family is a failure. His love life is a failure. His day job is a failure. He is utterly friendless and alone in the world. His next option seems but one.
And in a truly vile and reprehensible way, it's as if the authors of the film stand jeering just off camera urging "jump, you loser".
Luckily life is not, cannot EVER be, this bad. In many ways, it is deeply irresponsible to bring such a horribly discouraging and depressing work before the public. It is such a lopsided portrayal of living as to be laughably unrealistic.
I for one, have lost loved ones, been homeless for an extended period, lost lovers, jobs, hopes and dreams. There is and always will be some light and joyful counterbalance in the universe even in the darkest moments. Perhaps the Coen brothers need to go to a good church service, or minimally watch a Monty Python movie. Smile a bit.
To display such great contempt for the subject, at a certain point, simply becomes self-referentially contemptible.
"Life is a tale told by an idiot ( or "King Midas' idiot little brother" ), full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." That is the message this film has for you. Avoid it. Sadomasochistic, vicious intellectual smut.
score 1/10
deindorfer 5 July 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3044807/ |
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1-12-2019 10:18:46
