Inside Llewyn Davis 4K 2013 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

New York, early 1960s. Manhattan’s bohemian neighborhoods and the tobacco-smoke-filled small clubs, the dusty roads of America, and massive vinyl pressings. Lewin Davis, a folk singer and guitarist, barely scrapes by between gigs at Greenwich Village clubs and occasional radio appearances. Homeless and penniless, entangled in love, and having nearly lost touch with his family, he wanders through life in search of himself.

Review 4K Movie

Lewin (Oscar Isaac), a vagabond guitarist, is languishing on the fringes of the folk music scene and harboring vague hopes of success. But the aftermath of a one-night stand with Jean (Carey Mulligan) and a stray cat he accidentally takes in set off a chain of events that may—or may not—change Lewin’s life.

Why watch it?

The Coen brothers rarely tell self-contained stories: with a few exceptions, such as *True Grit*, their films leave the viewer with plenty of room for reflection. And the fact that “Leonard Davis” is one of the Coens’ darkest works may make its open-ended ending particularly hard to take for viewers who prefer their entertainment to be simple, straightforward, and neatly tied up.

The brothers rarely make their main characters completely unlikable, but the dreary freeloader Lewin is a real piece of shit. The kind who gets his friend’s girlfriend pregnant. And then borrows money from that very same friend to pay for the abortion. But he’s suffering, after all: Lewin used to be one half of a promising musical duo—until his co-writer jumped off a bridge. And so now Lewin considers himself an unrecognized musical genius. That’s why the character, as they say, “went underground.” After all, it’s so easy to see your own projections in a self-centered man who’s angry at the whole world and has an “excuse” for why his life is falling apart (the world is unfair!).

Lewin has no desire to build relationships with people, but he’s clearly not cut out for a solo career either (“I don’t see any potential in that,” F. Murray Abraham’s character shrugs after Lewin pours his heart out at an audition). And it’s fascinating to read into this conflict the Coen brothers’ fear of losing each other. That’s why this exhausting, melancholic odyssey—which, to top it off, seems trapped in some kind of time loop—isn’t the easiest film to watch, but it’s certainly one of the best in the brothers’ careers.