***Out In The 1960s Folk Minute Night-The Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis

 

   

 

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac, Cary Mulligan, John Goodman, written and directed by the Coen Brothers, 2013

As a member in good standing of the generation of ’68, and a child of the early 1960s folk minute I was all ears when I heard that the film under review, Inside Llewyn Davis written and directed by the Coen Brothers had been released (although I was not sure that the guys behind Fargo, Raising Arizona and the like would have the proper appreciation for that minute). You all know all about that folk minute or have heard about it, the time when old songs and new versions by troubadours and vagabonds located mainly in places like the Village, Harvard Square, Ann Arbor, Old Town, and North Beach threatened to put rock and roll on its ear. Of course that rock and roll in the early 1960s was stuff like Tell Laura I Love Her, Teen Angel (and about seven other angelic songs), Moon River and the like. Certainly not the Elvis of his early hungry days with things like One Night, Jerry Lee with High School Confidential, Chuck Berry with Sweet Little Sixteen, or Bo Diddley with Who Do You Love or the later Stones and Beatles explosions which would put that minute in the shade. But with the likes of Bob Dylan, venerable Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, and Dave Van Ronk there was enough talent to give it a go.        

That last named singer is important, important for this film because at least superficially the mood of this piece had been said to be inspired by that old folk-singer/songwriter, historian and curmudgeon, Dave Van Ronk. Dave’s loving biographer, Elijah Wald says no, and from the number of times I saw him perform in person over the years in substantial concert halls and rundown coffeehouses I agree with Brother Wald. But surely the music (literally) is Dave’s and the mores and culture of the folk scene presented on screen seems about right (although my vantage point was from Harvard Square in Cambridge). You know the struggling folk artists up all night working their trade, bumming cigarettes, drinking wine, maybe smoking a little weed, cadging food and lodging where  they could all for, well, all for art.  And as the plot unfolds our man, Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) struts his stuff in just such a manner.

Seems though Llewyn is at wit’s end since losing his partner (to suicide) and is not making it very well in the Gaslight 1961 era just at the opening edge of that folk minute explosion. He is hustling for gigs, working for the “basket,” trying to keep body and soul together but is not making it in the Village. So on a tip he grabs a shared expenses ride to Chicago to check out the scene there. This section of the film is the best since beat poet Johnny and hipster jazz man Roland (played by John Goodman) are his traveling companions. Before they hit Chicago though Johnny has a beef with a cop and is arrested and old style be-bop hipster junkie Roland slides into a heroin overdose leaving Llewyn to travel that last stretch alone. In Chicago though it is no dice, no go, and so he heads back to New York. While he tries to hustle some work it is still no go and so he decides to go to sea, go work as a merchant marine (after he settles his union dues and papers issues). In a fit of hubris he spends his last night at the Gaslight mocking one of the performers, a performer whose husband took umbrage and beat him down in the back alley behind the Gaslight. Yeah, vagabond Llewyn, even with all his talent and dreams, is a guy fresh out of luck just then. Just like a million other guys and gals later after that folk minute flamed out. But as the film ends a new scraggly guy from the Midwest with a gravelly voice is shown in outline playing a song, Farewell, that seems to be “speaking” to that audience. Humm.