I saw Inside Llewyn Davis in a sold out matinée in Union Square, NYC last weekend. The city was cold and dreary, much like the 1960s Manhattan depicted in this film. I sat with my friend after the movie and basically railed against the film for the first ten minutes before slowly admitting that my criticisms were obviously the intended result and that the Coen Brothers have once again made a great movie that is simply not easy to digest and certainly not fun to digest.

I'll lead with the greatness. The underlying takeaway of this film is that the actual creation of music - the sound, the beauty and the lyrical story - can embody some of the best attributes about humanity and yet, the creator of such music can nonetheless lack all such attributes and essentially be as ugly a person as his music is beautiful. That is the takeaway, and the Coen Bros intentionally force this upon the viewer. The folk songs song by Lleywn serve as calming beautiful interludes and as stark contrasts to the plot driven by a character who is simply put, a terrible human being stuck in an extremely frustrating, self-made vacuum of an existence.

I assume that most people, like me, gravitate toward wanting to root for the struggling artist. There is a nobility in pursuing your dreams when such dreams consist of the pursuit of an art form. Here, folk music is put on a pedestal and LLewyn's pursuit of it is from the outset, something the audience implicitly will support. In the course of 90 minutes, the Coen Bros force you to question this support, hate the lead character and eventually cheer when he gets punched in the face.

The problem is simple. I did not want any more of LLewyn Davis after 90 minutes. I did not want to hear his music anymore because the lyrics he sung were fraudulent, the beauty of his playing, a guise. And due to his self-made failings throughout the film, I no longer cared where his story went. The Coen Bros could have taken the plot line in any number of ways to give the viewer some foothold to hope that Llewyn may end up on the right track one day. They do not give you that foothold, and for that reason, I was pretty ready for this movie to end when it did. This is admittedly a criticism, but more an observation. I certainly do not need films to end with rainbows and hearts, but this script really forces you to watch a man stuck in a static world where his own actions cause him to go nowhere, and that is a frustrating world to inhabit for 90 minutes.

The best parts of the film are not the Manhattan scenes, but the drive LLewyn takes to Chicago. The Coen Bros have used the theme of "driving at night" time and time again to make some great scenes, usually emotionally charged personal voyages. This is no different. Their cinematography and over all character driven story telling shines when their lead characters hit the road. The bit characters are fun and unusual in the Coen Bro's way, but do little to ease the 90 minutes of crass, immature, self-defeating, out-of-touch and eventually just pathetic life movements from Lleywn's character

For Coen Brother fans, its worth the journey; for general movie fans, be warned, as this is an interesting film, but arguably not an enjoyable one.

The Coen's sometimes make small films. They have a frame of reference that others don't. This is the story of a man. If you don't like him, that's not a problem. He is a folk singer. He is doing his thing in a time when that genre was in great demand. But he is also a self-centered, living-day-to-day jerk who leaves messes in his wake. He wants to work, but has a disdainful view of his own accomplishments. He treats people who do kindnesses for him with the same disdain that he uses on strangers. He does nothing to ingratiate himself with the people who could help him. We don't know where he is going and neither does he. He ends up hooking a ride to Chicago with a taciturn driver known only as Johnny-5. In the back is the scene stealing John Goodman. The ten or so minutes in that car are some of the very best. Goodman taunts and pokes (literally, using a cane) Llewyn, calling him Elwyn. He is absolutely brutal and yet hilarious. When Llewyn arrives in Chicago, he has a brief audition with a producer played by F. Murray Abraham, who basically tells him he's okay, but he isn't hearing any money coming from him. This leads to more sidetracking of the old career, landing on more couches, trying to get back into the Merchant Marine, and more failed efforts. I think if those who are so disdainful of this film were to look at it more closely, there is a black humor that really works. The Coens are known for that. If you think that this is a picaresque offering where the main character learns his lesson, you aren't going to get that. Remember the scene in "Fargo" where the guy is putting the leg in the wood chipper and is scolded by Francis McDormand. He didn't learn anything either.

It's 1961 in Greenwich Village. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer who lost his musical partner Mike to suicide. His new solo album isn't selling but then neither is anything else he did with Mike. He stays at his friends the Gorfeins but the cat gets locked out. Then he visits his friends Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan). She tells him that she's pregnant possibly by him. And Llewyn's life keeps drifting on.

Brother filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen have brought something different with this original character in this unique era. It's beautifully filmed as usual. Oscar Isaac is a newcomer and an unknown. He fits this character very well. He has a drifter musician quality to him. Carey Mulligan takes a hilarious turn with her angry performance. The movie has a mellow and rambling vibe. It also has its big moments. The music is awright but nothing exciting. It's a man slowly drifting in the world as his musical career tries to stay afloat.