Who's seen it? What did you think?

1/24/2014 2:03:32 PM

I thought it was great, surprised it didn't get an Oscar nom

1/24/2014 2:18:18 PM

I, too, thought it was great.

Then again, I'm a fan of good movies, so this shouldn't be unexpected

1/24/2014 3:12:01 PM

I plan to see it this weekend and I'm pretty sure that I will enjoy it, since I've never seen a Coen Brothers film I haven't enjoyed (although there have been a couple that I've enjoyed a little less than the others)

1/24/2014 3:24:53 PM

liked it

not the best Cohen Bros film though

1/24/2014 3:31:48 PM

Quote :

"I, too, thought it was great. Then again, I'm a fan of good movies, so this shouldn't be unexpected"

1/24/2014 3:51:57 PM

I liked it but if it didn't exist I wouldn't be sad.

1/24/2014 5:02:48 PM

Felt really pointless.

1/26/2014 2:54:46 AM

wtached the first 10 mins and turned it off

1/26/2014 10:57:30 AM

it was ok

1/26/2014 8:26:08 PM

It was ok. I didn't love it, but like all Coen brothers movies, I'll probably appreciate it more after several viewings. I did like the footage of the cat. I could have done with a little less folk music performances.

Quote :

"wtached the first 10 mins and turned it off"

where were you watching it?

[Edited on January 27, 2014 at 12:27 PM. Reason : ]

1/27/2014 12:23:17 PM

ttt

8/3/2014 2:28:42 PM

great movie but there was no real closure or ending for that matter

8/3/2014 2:52:45 PM

I disagree completely. The ending was the only part of the movie that I enjoyed. Given that the ending looped to the beginning, somebody from the times was there, Bob Dylan was the other act, I just took it as he continued to live out his role being used and playing for tips. While others like Dylan made it.

It is difficult to make a film portraying a musical era using fictional main characters. The way I see it, you can either use a fictional character that plays the classical music of that era (as did emmet ray in Sweet and Lowdown) or you can create original music that drives the movie (which was done superbly in Hustle and Flow). I believe that both of these movies accomplished their goals better than Inside Llewyn Davis, because what they did was to flirt with original recordings while also using classic pieces (in ways that the Coens are legendary for), but this led to a disjointed musical driving force. Another problem in part was because their original recordings sounded too modern, too tainted by todays concept of folk music.

I also did not like much of the comic relief between Llewyn and his dime piece, and I thought that Timberlake was underutilized and could have shined more.



[Edited on August 4, 2014 at 3:43 AM. Reason : d]

8/4/2014 3:18:13 AM

The other thing is that the music really did not match the time period nor the character... at all. It just seemed like an odd assortment of tag along baggage that went with a movie about a depressed folk singer that was not coping with the death of his partner. In fact, that incident in his life seemed to be the driving force for his character, but nothing else reflected that. The era and the music just seemed to be something that was forced into the film by the producers so that they could make more texa$. It is basically the same complaint that many share with World War Z, which is that apart from the appearance and the title, the movie was nothing at all like the book. From the outside, this looks exactly as if it would be a mirroring the life of the great dave van Ronk, but everything in side was merely there to sell popcorn.

8/5/2014 8:22:13 AM

I disagree with that assessment

8/5/2014 9:47:23 AM

Well, I can dial it down a little after watching it a second time, because I really did enjoy the cinematography. I also think that Llewyn jumping in and out of windows and up and down fire escapes was the closest thing to CGI-free action that I have seen in a long long time. Also, I think that Oscar did a great job acting and performing and surely this will be a breakout role for him. And, I do like the recordings quite a bit, but I just don't think that they fit that well to the time period, and they certainty don't fit his character at all.

The ending also makes this story confusing, as is usual for lots of their films. But the difference is that as I understand the ending, it just did not fit so well with the rest of the movie. The majority of the film is about this depressed artist that gets shit on by the world, and then he in turn shits on them back, creating a dismal cycle to his life. However, in the "looping ending" we see Dylan taking the stage playing Farewell to a crowd of journalists, which to me clearly signaled the rise of the singer/song writer and the end of the Folk singer. This ties in perfectly with John Goodman's scenes, as it just eludes to the growing apathy that people are developing towards this sound and in my mind foreshadowed the ending. If so, then how exactly does this tie into Llewyn and his scenes? He is portrayed as battling the loss of his friend and partner, not the changing tides of the American music scene. It just seems like the movie was going in too many different directions to have one conclusive story line, and the music reflected that.

[Edited on August 10, 2014 at 11:24 AM. Reason : s]

8/10/2014 11:06:39 AM

I'm not saying it was a bad movie, and I understand the themes/metaphors as well as the ending, but I just think it would have been stronger if there was a more of a conclusion. Even if it was just going back to the beatdown scene and then he gets into a car (or hitches) to the Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco or something.

Great music, great acting, great cinematography. But at the end, I just felt like I didn't gain much from watching a guy struggle with his circumstances for a week and for it to go nowhere.

8/11/2014 12:17:21 PM

what was all this modern sounding original music you speak of...


there was only one original song in the entire movie by my count...

8/28/2014 6:49:15 AM

^ the recordings were all original, and they were highly fitting of the modern era. Most of them were basically just modern, highly manicured covers.


As a contrast, think of the music in Walk the Line and Sweet and Lowdown as tunes that are fitting and indistinguishable from that era.

[Edited on August 28, 2014 at 3:11 PM. Reason : g]

8/28/2014 3:05:46 PM

one again...

there was only one original in the movie...


there were no originals in walk in the line....(i don't know about sweet low down because i haven't seen it)



you clearly have a very loose definition on the word "original"

i'll buy covers...but nothing but "hey mr. kennedy" was an original

8/30/2014 6:20:22 AM

Quote :

"Another problem in part was because their original recordings sounded too modern "

I said that the recordings were original, not the songs, and what I meant is that they were redone and rerecorded for the movie. They were basically modern covers.

Besides, the point isn't that I didn't like the music, because I did like the majority of the songs, I just don't think that their versions fit the era that well. In my opinion they were too Emo-ish and not nearly bluesy enough. Keep in my mind that the blues were a very important part of the folk singer's repertoire back then. Hell, more than half of the tracks on Dylan's debut album were blues songs. It is just something that struck me as a little bit odd about the recordings in this movie compared to other movies in this genre. When these movies are done successfully, the songs usually fit right in to the era and help to push the movie along. In this case though, you heard a lot of criticism from film critics saying that there was too much of the music in it, or that the music was distracting. This is a very bad reaction to a film about a musical era, and to me it indicates that the music didn't not mesh well with the direction of the film. Again, just rewatch Hustle and Flow to get a feeling for how the music is supposed to push the movie a long for this type of film.



[Edited on August 31, 2014 at 7:36 AM. Reason : f]

8/31/2014 7:24:29 AM

I loved this movie. It frustrated me and left me unsatisfied. It was very refreshing.

9/4/2014 9:49:22 PM