In 1961 New York, Llewyn Davis (Davis) is a respected folk musician whose career has stalled. With nowhere to live, he moves from couch to couch, accidentally picking up a pet cat along the way. But his friendship with husband-wife folk act Jim and Jean (Timberlake and Mulligan) is strained when Jean tells Llewyn she's pregnant and doesn't want to run the risk that hit might be his. Scrounging for cash, he takes a road trip to Chicago with a pair of nutcases (Hedlund and Goodman) and considers re-enlisting in the Merchant Marines.

Along this journey, the Coens immerse us in wonderfully evocative folk music (produced by T Bone Burnett), and each strained situation is counter-balanced by Llewyn's sardonic quick wit. Which is what gets him in trouble most of the time. There are running gags (Llewyn doesn't have a winter coat) and a couple of big surprises along the way, plus a parade of hilarious side characters who have their own issues.

Surrounded by blustering idiots, life feels pretty exhausting for Llewyn, who just needs a break. Isaac is adorable in the role, a guy we can't help but like both for his raw talent and his way of cutting through rubbish to poke fun at what's actually going on. Standouts from the supporting cast include Mulligan's bitter Jean, Goodman's aggressively rude gentleman and Sands in an amusingly ridiculous role as a clean-cut soldier-boy crooner. But the film is stolen by the cats.

Meanwhile, the plot ambles around without much momentum, as characters come and go, bringing things to a screeching halt before Llewyn brushes himself off for the next scenario. This makes the movie feel like a series of random events strung together by a young musician at a make-or-break point in his career. But the music helps connect everything, and even if Llewyn realises that he might not actually be going anywhere, that's no reason to stop living.

themes, language, violence

13.Oct.13 lff