When Joel and Ethan Coen’s 16th film, Inside Llewyn Davis, debuted in 2013 it followed the brothers' biggest commercial hit ever, the remake of True Grit. But instead of lighting up the box office once again, Davis made a modest amount, garnered many awards nominations but few wins, and faded from the memories of all but the most devoted Coen fans. But more than halfway through the second decade of this century, Inside Llewyn Davis keeps popping up on Best of the Decade Lists.
And justifiably so. Oscar Isaac, now a much bigger deal because of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ex Machina, gave a breakout performance as the titular struggling, bitter folk singer. He conveys the frigid atmosphere of New York and the Midwest throughout the film, and combines bumbling dark humor with an acidic anger at the world for failing to drag him along in a riptide of success. It's not an underdog story, but a mysterious Möbius strip of a movie that hits a sour note over and over but lingers in the mind. It rewards multiple viewings, and appreciation grows with time to analyze all that’s going on between Llewyn and the various people whose patience he wears thin.
Perhaps in anticipation of the Coens’ next film, Hail, Caesar!, which opens in February, the Criterion Collection is re-releasing Inside Llewyn Davis on Blu-ray tomorrow with a plethora of bonus features. There's the filmed tribute concert featuring performances by Joan Baez, Marcus Mumford, Gillian Welch, and Jack White. There's also, of course, plenty of commentary tracks. But most interestingly, there is a 40-minute conversation between the Coens and director Guillermo del Toro. Their wide-ranging conversation careens from the Coens early days to how they approach screenwriting now. Check out a clip from that conversation, in which del Toro and the Coens dig into the unique structure of the film and how that affected the directors’ typically straightforward writing process, above.
