New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Inside Llewyn Davis , the new film written and directed by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, opens in select theaters in New York City and Los Angeles today. The film, which follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961, stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Justin Timberlake. The original soundtrack recording , produced by T Bone Burnett and the Coen brothers, with Marcus Mumford as associate producer, is out now on Nonesuch Records and features 12 new recordings created especially for the film and soundtrack as well as a never-before-released recording of
Bob Dylan performing his song "Farewell."
As noted earlier this week in the Nonesuch Journal , Inside Llewyn Davis has already been met with great critical acclaim, for the film, filmmakers, stars, and soundtrack. The New York Times 's A.O. Scott says Oscar Isaac "plays both Llewyn and the guitar with offhand virtuosity." The Wall Street Journal too lauds his "phenomenal performance." New York magazine calls the film "transcendentally soundtracked." Time calls the soundtrack "a trove of sonic pleasure." The New York Times 's
Janet Maslin exclaims: " Inside Llewyn Davis has the best T Bone Burnett soundtrack since the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? "
The accolades continue, not least from Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan.
"As much as any directors working today, the brothers Coen, Ethan and Joel, are unmistakable auteurs, filmmakers who place their own distinctive stamp on everything they do," writes Turan. He goes on to call Inside Llewyn Davis "a singular experience, one of their best films."
Given the subject of the film, "the songs here and the specific time period they come out of move from the soundtrack to center stage," says Turan. "Llewyn Davis is a complex, contradictory character who sometimes does the worst things for the best reasons and comes alive most fully, most appealingly, only when he sings. It's a gift no one can take away from him, not even himself."
Read the complete review at latimes.com.
NPR film critic Ian Buckwalter says that "music is as vital to Inside Llewyn Davis as it was to O Brother, Where Art Thou . The actors perform their own songs, and Isaac is especially impressive, not just for the disarming beauty of his voice but also for his ability to show us a sweet and soulful side of Llewyn that supplants his usual bitterness when he has a guitar in his hands."
Buckwalter, in recommending the film, goes on to say that the Coen brothers' new film "represents not just another in a streak of brilliant films, but the finest blend yet of the duo's sharp, laugh-out-loud wit and sobering insight into the loneliness and absurdity of existence."
Read the review at npr.org.
Paste magazine rates the film a nine out of ten. The Coen brothers' latest "continues their winning streak," writes reviewer
Jonah Flicker.
"Oscar Isaac's performance is of particular note," says Flicker, who concludes that "the Coens have created a film that is wholly original and highly entertaining. Inside Llewyn Davis maintains their unique vision while paying homage to an important time period in American music and the beginning of the counter-culture movement in New York City."
Read more at paste.com.
"[A]s delivered by Isaac ... in a raw, soul-baring tenor, Llewyn's songs are exquisite—the high point of a beautifully chosen soundtrack, woven together by T Bone Burnett in part from songs by the artists on whom this movie's scruffy Village habitués are loosely based," writes Slate 's Dana Stevens. "[E]very song-and there are many we hear in their entirety, performed live on set by the actors-feels fresh and immediate, as if we're discovering this kind of music for the first time along with the crowds in the smoky, cavernous Gaslight ..."
Christian Science Monitor film critic
Peter Rainer calls the soundtrack "marvelous" and finds the Coen brothers "in top form" on the film, saying: " Inside Llewyn Davis is one of their best."
To pick up a copy of the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack, head to the Nonesuch Store , where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete album at checkout. Both are now 35% off the standard retail price (about 20% off the everyday low prices listed on the site) as part of the current Nonesuch Store anniversary sale.
