Inside Llewyn Davis, the new Coen brothers film set in the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961, is a New York Times Critics' Pick. The Times' A.O. Scott says Oscar Isaac "plays both Llewyn and the guitar with offhand virtuosity." The Wall Street Journal lauds “Isaac's phenomenal performance.” The actor discussed the role and the music on NPR's All Things Considered and on WNYC's Soundcheck, which you can listen to here, and in a Hollywood Reporter piece you can watch here. Time calls the soundtrack "a trove of sonic pleasure," and Rolling Stone calls it "pure pleasure."
Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, which opens in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow, December 6, is a New York Times Critics' Pick. Times film critic A.O. Scott says Oscar Isaac "plays both Llewyn and the guitar with offhand virtuosity ... with a fine, clear tenor singing voice."
Scott concludes of the film: "[A]t least one of its lessons seems to me, after several viewings, as clear and bright as a G major chord. We are, as a species, ridiculous: vain, ugly, selfish and self-deluding. But somehow, some of our attempts to take stock of this condition—our songs and stories and moving pictures, old and new—manage to be beautiful, even sublime."
Read the complete review at nytimes.com.
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The film is “exquisitely played,” says the Wall Street Journal. “Music has long been an important part of the Coen brothers' films,” writes Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern. “This time music is the story's heart and soul, and the trip is as much a pilgrimage as an odyssey by an artist who's unswervingly faithful to his art.”
Morgenstern goes on to say: “As an evocation of a seminal period in popular culture, the production is peerless; no feature film has ever explored the intersection of the folk movement and the Beat Generation with such fidelity to the spirit of the time.”
Of Isaac, Morgenstern concludes: “The film's centerpiece is Mr. Isaac's phenomenal performance. He's an actor, first and foremost, who is also a musician, but you'd never know it from his self-effacing mastery; he looks, and sounds, to be a seasoned folk singer with an uncanny gift for naturalistic acting.”
Read the review at online.wsj.com.
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“When the Coen brothers decide to make a movie about the Greenwich Village folk-music scene in the 1960s, they don't screw around. Not content to capture the sights and sounds, they fix it so you inhale the place,” writes Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers, who cites Isaac for giving “one of the best performances of a strong year,” concluding: “The score is pure pleasure. That's when you learn what's inside Llewyn Davis. The Juilliard-trained Isaac has authentic musical chops, performing whole songs, not snippets.” Read more at rollingstone.com.
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Oscar Isaac was a guest on NPR's All Things Considered last night. He spoke with host Melissa Block about the character, a young folk singer navigating the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961, and Isaac's own singing and guitar playing, which he does in the film and on the soundtrack, which is out now on Nonesuch Records. You can listen to the All Things Considered piece, including clips from the soundtrack, at npr.org.
Isaac was also a guest on Soundcheck from New York public radio station WNYC, talking with host John Schaefer about the role. Schaefer concludes by calling the film's soundtrack, out now on Nonesuch Records, "full of great music, beautifully played." You can listen to the episode below and read a SPIN interview with Isaac at spin.com.
The Hollywood Reporter also spoke with Isaac, his fellow stars John Goodman and Stark Sands, and T Bone Burnett, who produced the film's soundtrack with Joel and Ethan Coen, about the music in the film and the soundtrack of their own lives. See what they have to say in the video below:
The New York Daily News gives the film a perfect five stars, calling it "a superb look at '60s folk and frustrated ambition." Reviewer Elizabeth Weitzman says the film is "a must-see," noting that "an exquisite folk soundtrack pulls us along." Read the review at nydailynews.com.
For more on the film and to find out where Inside Llewyn Davis is playing in a theater near you, click here.
In Rolling Stone, writer Robert Christgau takes an in-depth look at "the Coen Brothers' cinematic search for authenticity" in the film's portrayal of the folk scene before Bob Dylan's breakout success, and Time magazine's Richard Corliss describes the soundtrack as a "great album ... a trove of sonic pleasure."
To pick up a copy of the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete album at checkout. Both are now 35% off the standard retail price (about 20% off the everyday low prices listed on the site) as part of the current Nonesuch Store anniversary sale.
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