"Inside Llewyn Davis" - King Midas's Idiot Brother

*SPOILERS ahead.

After watching over twelves hours of Bob Dylan related movies this month (Rolling Thunder Revue, Factory Girl, I’m Not There, No Direction Home), it seemed only logical that I finally take the plastic off (more on that later) of my copy of Inside Llewyn Davis, a movie that doesn’t glorify the folk scene of 1961 but rather casts a shadow (almost literally considering the color palette of the film) over the era. This is the folk scene right before Bob Dylan showed up (as he appears in the background in the film’s final moments), and for some people, Llewyn Davis specifically, a career in folk music is an eternal struggle. That’s what drew me to this film after all the Dylan stuff. After watching so much film about or inspired by this artist, it was nice to see a story from the same era but about someone who didn’t become an icon. Plus, it’s a Coen Brothers movie, and everything they make should be watched twice, at least.

“[T]he same shit’s going to keep happening to you, because you want it to.” 

Inside Llewyn Davis is a bit of a head-scratcher after the first viewing (at least it was for me). The film seems to end where it begins, so it appears that Llewyn is in some kind of loop, especially once you find out the cat’s name is Ulysses because it makes it seem like he’s on some seemingly endless journey a la Odysseus. But that’s not exactly the case. 

First of all, it’s not a time loop as there are quite a few differences. Llewyn sings another song and is followed by Bob Dylan at the end of the film. Plus, he keeps Ulysses from leaving the apartment with him this time. A lot of similar things happen to Llewyn, but the point of it isn’t that he’s in some purgatory or mythical allegory. He’s just in a rut as a person and an artist that he may or may not want out of.

The easy version of this movie is that Llewyn wants to find success as an artist and reaches some breakthrough at the end. You could argue that he has come to terms with the loss of his bandmate Mike by the end, but he’s still not thriving at the end. What makes it interesting is that it doesn’t seem like he really wants out of the loop. Llewyn Davis is very self-sabotaging, whether he does it consciously or not. For example, he takes a quick check instead of getting royalties for the “Please Mr. Kennedy” recording. He tells his sister to just throw out all of his things without even going through them, not realizing his merchant marine union papers are among them. Why is he like this? That’s where folk music comes into play.

Music, perhaps more than any other artistic expression, glorifies struggle. Success is considered selling out. Folk music in particular embodies this as the songs are typically about struggles among common people, and what’s more common than scraping by? On some level, Llewyn never wants to stop crashing on whatever couch he can find in the Village, because if he somehow makes enough money to get his own place, then he must have sold out to get there. 

This is not necessarily who Llewyn Davis is overall, but it’s certainly who he is throughout the film. He was part of a duo, and his attempt at a solo career is failing. He is trying, but he’s unwilling to admit that he needs someone. Mike’s suicide is still affecting him, and he doesn’t want to find someone new. But trying things on his own has created an endless rut. The end of the film may find him making slight progress (because of his ability to leave the cat in the apartment), but it seems like he may have simply made peace with the rut.

This is best exemplified by his conversations with Jean (Carey Mulligan). In may ways, everything she says to him sums up his character perfectly, even down to calling him “shit.” But it’s her discussion with him about being a “careerist” that is most telling. She talks about how she and Jim want something, and Llewyn is just on the couch, and it’s spot on. But he sees her goal of success as selling out or giving up. To him the struggle is the point, but this is only because he’s miserable. 

Llewyn’s misery isn’t exclusive to music. He has possibly impregnated Jean, who he clearly has feelings for (despite her being with Jim), and he goes on to find out that he has a child living in Akron (the woman he was with decided to keep the baby without telling him). He considers having a family as giving up, as he gives Jean shit for wanting to move out of the city and raise a child, and he is condescending to his sister when discussing her life of “just existing.” Yet when he drives past Akron on his way back from Chicago he stares at it longingly and moments later he hits a cat (most likely the wrong cat he brought with him from New York but abandoned). By passing Akron he is killing his chance at such a life, and perhaps he regrets this a bit. Regardless, he passes it up and head back to his struggle as a folk singer.

Llewyn alienating people around him and showing disdain for people who succeed shows that living as an artist, or at least an artist in Llewyn’s eyes, is a selfish and lonely endeavor. He uses anyone willing to give him a couch, and he doesn’t seem very interested in family ties (family, either his child or his sister and dad, represent a life wasted). Most people seem to hate him or dismiss him (a man seems to stare at him with hate in his eyes on the subway, Roland Turner dislikes him immediately, etc.). It’s a miserable existence, but it seems to be one he wants to live. It’s also a refreshingly realistic cinematic look at a musician, since Llewyn is never going to make it in the traditional sense, just like most people who follow their dreams. Most just keep grinding it out for as long as possible. For every Bob Dylan, there are a thousand Llewyn Davises out in the alley, getting their asses kicked.

The appearance of Bob Dylan at the end while Llewyn goes to the alley to take his beating sums up what his professional life will most likely be. One step away from stardom and success (which he doesn’t actually want, because hey, Dylan ended up betraying his folk beginning anyway when he went electric, right?). One step away from a beating each night. But this is what he wanted, so it’s not really a sad or depressing ending. Llewyn is going to continue to be the artist he wants to be, and the events of the film have helped him come to terms with that. 

King Midas’s idiot brother

The first time I watched Inside Llewyn Davis, I wasn’t blown away by it. But it’s not the type of movie to blow you away. It’s a movie to be absorbed after multiple viewings. I didn’t hate the film, and I knew I needed to give it time. The Coens have earned my patience over the years, so any time I watch a film of theirs and don’t seem to get it at first, I’ll give it a few months and watch it again. 

I have come to love it, but I feel the need to address why I didn’t like it at first. To begin with, Llewyn is a dick. I know the movie points this out plenty of times, but that doesn’t make him likable. I’ve come to enjoy him as a character, but he does a few things I consider unforgivable. The main issue I have with him is having sex with Jean while she’s with Jim, and then, the kicker, trying to get money from Jim for Jean’s abortion while knowing that the baby could also be Jim’s. I get the dark humor in such a request, but when you think about Jim, who seems to be the nicest character in the film, unwittingly paying for the abortion of his own child, it becomes fucking evil. But I’ve made my peace with it because it finally occurred to me that I don’t need to like him. 

Having an unlikable protagonist isn’t a new concept to me, but I wanted to like Llewyn, probably because I think Oscar Isaac is a great actor, and he’s especially good in this film. The fact that I have come to kind of like him despite his despicable behavior is a testament to his performance.

I also wasn’t crazy about the possible time look aspect of the film the first time. It made me wonder what I missed, realizing that the fucking cat was very important, especially with a name like Ulysses. The name thing really annoyed me because I thought this was meant to be about The Odyssey again, which I thought was a bit lazy. But looking back, this has very little to do with The Odyssey and is more of a reference to the Joyce novel, mainly because it’s a slightly plotless look at life in a specific world over the course of a short period of time. (I’ve never read Ulysses, though, so perhaps there’s more than that to it.)

I just didn’t feel like trying to figure this movie out the first time I saw it. But I chalk that up to awards season fatigue (I have to watch 60+ movies in the final month of the year for the year-end awards from the critics group I belong to and sometimes a movie gets less attention than it deserves). After giving it a few years (I opened my blu ray copy a few days ago even though I bought it years ago), I was able to give the film another chance. 

This time around, I found myself enjoying the world of the film. Even though I like digging deeper into the film and thinking about theories about the cat and whatnot, I also just enjoy the movie on the surface. It’s sneakily one of the Coen Brothers’ funniest films, and it features a great cast of characters. And I’ve embraced folk music recently, so that aspect, which was a bit lost on me the first go around, is now part that I enjoy very much.

Inside Llewyn Davis is not only a film I have come to love; it’s also an example of my favorite type of movie. It’s a film that can be as deep or shallow as you want it to be. That shouldn’t have surprised me because the Coens excel at that. I’m just glad I gave this movie the time it deserved, because now I consider it top-tier Coen Brothers.

Why Do I Own This?

I’m a Coen Brothers completionist (or I was since I have yet to buy Hail, Caesar! and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), so I buy this out of instinct. But this one truly needs to be owned because it gets better with each viewing.

Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren as college students before their relationship soured.

Random Thoughts 

I bet Llewyn apologizes about last night every day. 

"Llewyn is the cat."

Troy Nelson announcing, "Well, that was very good," after eating cereal annoys me for some reason. 

"Everything you touch turns to shit! Like King Midas's idiot brother."

"I'm not a fucking cat!"

There's something odd about seeing Adam Driver sing about "Outer...space!" now that he's Kylo Ren. Not to mention he's singing with Poe Dameron. 

I actually really like "Please Mr. Kennedy."

What happened to Garrett Hedlund? I mean, I know he still works with regularity, but I always thought he would be a bigger star.

John Goodman definitely has some of the best lines, or maybe I just enjoy watching him roast Llewyn. 

"Grown man with a cat. Is that part of your ACT?"

"I just didn't know what to do with it."

"Really? So, did you bring your dick along, too?"

Llewyn is such a fuck-up that he can't even give up and become a careerist properly. 

..

"Sucker Punch"

Sucker Punch - Directed by Zack Snyder, written by Snyder and Steve Shibuya, starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, and Scott Glenn - Rated PG-13

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." I'll stand up for this movie while it continues to take a critical beating.

Director Zack Snyder is well known in the realm of geekdom these days. He has dealt with zombies (the remake of Dawn of the Dead) and has adapted the works of comic book legends Frank Miller (300) and Alan Moore (Watchmen). And Snyder has recently been given the reigns for the next Superman film. The point of all this is that Snyder makes movies for those of us who read comics, play videogames, and watch tons of movies. Sucker Punch is a movie with that audience (and that audience alone) in mind.

Sucker Punch has a fairly simple story – young institutionalized girls use fantasy worlds to escape reality and the mental institution itself – and a chaotic style. The film is a textbook example of style over substance. Instead of a somber, quiet scene to show a character’s grief, Snyder presents music video-like vignettes to hurry things along, which is incongruous since the director uses so much slow motion in the scenes. But it all looks cool and it’s simply entertaining. The idea of a pretty but empty film might be considered a negative, but if you go with it, what’s the harm? There are already plenty of intense dramas out there.

There isn’t much in the way of complexity in the film, but here goes anyway. Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is locked away in a mental institution by her evil stepdad who sets up a lobotomy for her as soon as possible. Baby Doll then enters into a fantasy where the institution becomes a night club/brothel. The girls are still kept against their will, but it’s a bit more lighthearted and it gives all of the women an excuse to dress sexy (more on that later). Baby Doll turns out to be a dancer so amazing that whenever men watch her they become so entranced that the girls can steal needed items from them to make their escape. Sucker Punch isn’t a movie about dancing, though. When Baby Doll starts to dance, the fantasy is taken one step deeper into one action-filled world after another.

Sucker Punch succeeds as an insane action-fantasy film. Each world the girls inhabit is in the middle of a war. Some look familiar (a World War I trench-warfare setting or a siege on a medieval castle) while others are fantastical (a train speeding towards a city in the midst of a robot civil war), but even the familiar settings feature ridiculous elements. The soldiers in the trenches are steam-powered Nazi zombies (and that World War I claim above is not a typo, these are Nazis in a WWI setting, hardly the most ridiculous aspect of the film, though). That castle being stormed? One half of the battle is being fought by orcs, at a castle that houses a dragon. As for the other setting…well, you saw “robot civil war,” right? Also, some giant samurai are thrown in for good measure. Basically, this is geek Valhalla.

Into this chaos enter gun-toting, samurai sword-wielding beauties dressed as if their costume designer was a 13-year-old boy. That statement might raise a few questions, but I’ll get to that in a second. There is an audience out there that reads that set up and thinks, “Awesome!” If you fall into that demographic, then Sucker Punch is definitely for you. It is kind of awesome and the action is brutal (even though the film is rated PG-13) and constant. (Be warned, though, it’s almost too chaotic. I got a bit dizzy watching some of the action play out on an IMAX screen.)

Back to the question that might arise from the summary: whose fantasy world are we actually watching? Sure, women are standing up for themselves and taking matters into their own hands, but that doesn’t make this a feminist film. Just look at the initial fantasy that is cooked up. Women escape reality by pretending to be whores (even though the sex part of their jobs is only implied, never shown)? How is that a good thing? And the idea that they can only get things done by dancing in such a provocative way that men go catatonic just watching them doesn’t exactly scream, “We can do it!” There aren’t many dramatic scenes for the ladies, but it seems like any time they’re not kicking ass they’re crying. And while this isn’t one of those films where it ends up that all the women really needed was a man to save them, there are still moments like that and the men do have all of the power in the film.

It’s easy to say, “Calm down, it’s just a movie,” and this critic is actually someone who would say that. Sucker Punch is a fun film that isn’t out to make a statement on the status of women in the world today. And it’s not dangerous in a stereotype-creating way. But the issue is there (and some are finding it much more serious than I, as evidenced by a few articles about it, like this one) and it might affect your enjoyment of the film.

Feminist or anti-feminist, it’s hard to argue that Sucker Punch features complex characters. Baby Doll and her cohorts (Sweet Pea, Rocket, Blondie, and Amber) are little more than walking clichés of abused women. Obviously, there wasn’t much time spent on character development. (Hell, they didn’t even bother to come up with a fifth cutesy nickname for Amber.) But so what? So Snyder is more of a director than he is a writer. Cinema is a visual medium after all, so it feels wrong to fault a film for just being stylish. It was hard to care much about what happened with any of the characters, though.

As far as the performances of these one-note ladies, most of them are ably done. Emily Browning sleepwalks through the film as Baby Doll, but that is kind of a requirement for the role. The others are fine, though Vanessa Hudgens managed to feel a bit unrealistic at times even for a movie as intentionally unrealistic as this. The rest of the cast gets to have a bit of fun. Carla Gugino hams it up nicely as a Polish psychiatrist/choreographer. Oscar Isaac is entertaining as a slimy guard/night club owner. And Scott Glenn (who must have been cast because of his Training Day character) appears to be having fun as he spouts off nearly nonsensical philosophical one-liners throughout.

In a strange bit of casting, Jon Hamm shows up for just a short moment in the film. It seems strange because it’s not just a cameo. He was clearly edited out of the film. In an interview, Browning mentioned a cut sex scene with Hamm so it’s safe to assume that this was a ratings issue rather than a performance problem. There is most likely a director’s cut in store for Sucker Punch.

Sucker Punch is a male-influenced “female” fantasy film. The largely male geek population is likely to find plenty to enjoy with this one (though female geeks are likely to enjoy it as well). On its own, Sucker Punch is a frenzied action film with plenty of visual treats. It is light on character and might be downright offensive to some, but if you can apply that “It’s just a movie” attitude towards it, you should have plenty of fun with this one.

Random Thoughts (SPOILERS)

The visuals are fantastic and over the top, throughout. But I also really dug the style of the “reality” scenes because they have this grime all over them. Gives the film an interesting look and feel.

I loved the mix of 1950s style and modern music (or modern takes on old songs). My favorite sequence had to be the WWI battle set to a revamped version of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."

During my initial viewing, I thought it was odd how Baby Doll was just a shell of a character. It's saying something to refer to a character as a shell in this film, since so many of them are one-note as it is. The revelation at the end that Baby Doll was not really the hero of the story was interesting and explained away Browning's odd performance. It turns out that Baby Doll was literally just an object to aid in Sweet Pea's escape, so it makes sense that she is kind of barren in the personality department.

The film was surprisingly dark in the end. Watching the fantasy battle sequences there was never a sense of danger for the protagonists. It just felt like they were untouchable and that everything was going to be okay in the end. Kind of surprising when most of them started to get killed off. This actually made me like the film a bit more.