Inside Llewyn Davis

"With Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel and Ethan Coen once again demonstrate their position as cinema’s most consistently reliable purveyors of cultural specificity, here taking us on a tour through the pre-Dylan boho stomping grounds of the early-’60s folk scene in New York. Narratively it seems to suggest a meeting point between the nightmarish, existential and creative struggles of Barton Fink and the old-timey Southern folk vernacular of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but that doesn’t even begin to capture the misty, lovely melancholia evoked here."

"Inside Llewyn Davis is a revelatory showcase for Isaac, who sings with an angelic voice and turns a potentially unlikable character into a consistently relatable, unmistakably human presence — a reminder that humility and genius rarely make for comfortable bedfellows."

"But mainly, it’s the film’s folk music that roots in the heart like a faraway lure."

"A brilliant magpie's nest of surrealism, period detail and pop-culture scholarship."

"Brilliantly written, terrifically acted, superbly designed and shot; it's a sweet, sad, funny picture about the lost world of folk music which effortlessly immerses us in the period."

"Plays like an elegy. Its conclusions are more regretful than angry."

"A flawless piece of classic Coen brothers cinema, exquisitely timed and told by all. Quite possibly their finest work yet."

"This is a gorgeously made character study leavened with surrealistic dimensions both comic and dark."

"Inside Llewyn Davis throbs with melancholy, hunches under heavy skies, revels in music history's unsexiest scene and unapologetically leaves you dangling. It is also beautiful, heartfelt and utterly enthralling."