Joel and Ethan Coen sure love old-timey music. They demonstrated their unerring taste in bluegrass with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and gospel with "The Ladykillers," whose soundtracks are beyond-the-greatest-hits treasures. Following a two-year absence from the screen the Coens are back with a movie that promises to revive interest in the Greenwich Village scene of the early Sixties while deflating its pretensions.
"Inside Llewyn Davis" stars Oscar Isaac as a hapless New York City troubadour facing trouble in his career ("Folk songs?" snorts John Goodman, "I thought you said you were a musician") and love life (Carey Mulligan offers him some very angry, graphic contraceptive advice involving electrical tape). The turtleneck-and-goatee coffeeshop ambiance comes across with wry nostalgia, and the song that overlays the trailer's action -- the haunting but obscure Dylan demo track "Farewell" -- promises another terrific adjunct album. No release date for the film has been announced, but here's hoping it's soon.
