Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2014

I think it’s safe to say that the Coen Brothers are the only filmmakers working today who could put together a wobbly, quasi-surrealistic character study of a not-terribly-likable person, a film that goes pretty much nowhere and then back again, and make it not only watchable, but totally engaging. Their loving recreation of the 1961 pre-Dylan Greenwich Village folk scene is so spot-on that it’s almost a character. Llewyn Davis is a genuinely talented, down-on-his-luck troubadour whose quest for stardom, or at least recognition, is continually stymied by every cretin in the music business and, it must be said, his own purist self. Character actor Oscar Isaac makes good on his big break with a nuanced, suitably understated performance. He does his own singing, as do supporters Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake. Coen standard John Goodman drops in as a comically sneering junkie jazz cat. The music is more than mere enhancement. The 10-song soundtrack album, recorded live during filming, will be worth a listen. This soulful, lyrical and melancholy film is being called “lesser Coen Brothers,” and, true, it lacks the broad appeal of, say, No Country for Old Men. But it is also being called one of their best. Japanese title: Inside Llewyn Davis: Namonaki Otoko no Uta. (115 min)