How Inside Llewyn Davis Explores Depression Through Folk Music 

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I love how the ending is just the opening of the movie in different angles. As if he’s goes over the same situation over and over again, for eternity. Artists like him, are lost in time. Beautiful music we will never hear.

I always saw the cat as happiness. This film has beautiful color theory to it and I believe the cats golden yellow fur plays into it. The gorfein's house is filled with yellow and blue tones which seem to follow Llewyn through the film. In the beginning he is chasing after the fleeing cat like he is chasing after his fleeting happiness after Mike's suicide. He loses grip on it but finds it again, but finds out that it is wrong. What he thinks he has brought back is Ulysses but it is not, later choosing to completely abandon the strange cat just like he abandons going to Akron. In the end when he is back at the gorfein's house and the cat is back instead of the parallel of the cat escaping he shoves it back inside. Back where Mrs.Gorfein is singing Mike's part and their music plays freely through the house. He's back where he started, except he doesn't have happiness. He doesn't have the cat to look for or forward too. He is back again, in the same downward spiral worse off than before.

One of the main things I notice each time I watch is Llewyn’s demeanor and eye contact when he performs, versus other characters. He’s constantly looking down, closing his eyes, hunching over, and remaining guarded. Whereas Jean, Jim and Troy constantly making eye contact with their audience, holding pleasant smiles, and keep good posture. The two times we see him attempt to look at an audience is at the Gate of Horn audition and with his father. But these are not simply the marks of attempting a good performance, they are Llewyn seeking something from his viewer. In the audition he’s seeking approval, acceptance, and validation of his talent. With his father he’s seeking to simply be seen, to make some sort of connection. I think this is made most obvious in the dialogue after the audition. “But I don’t have what say, Troy Nelson has?” “You know Troy? He’s a good kid. He connects with people.” I’d say the same applies to Jean and Jim. They connect with people because they aren’t seeking something from them. They’re giving them something in their performance. Llewyn is a selfish performer and while it might result in a more pure artistic achievement, in a commercial/audience run medium, he doesn’t cut the mustard.

The movie clearly shows that Llewyn Davis IS his own one true enemy. He just doesn't realize it. (And this is true with a great many people, unfortunately. Specially artists. They dig the hole of sorrow that they end up lying in. I have done that at times when I was younger. I don't do it now.)

I think we can all relate to Llewyn. How we're all unable to move on, how we can't get what we want, how we get in ourselves way, and how we're all shitty people deep down. It's weird that this is one of comfort movies, but it is.

"Llewyn is in Love with his depression..." Dammit! I feel that.

Honestly I think it has a hopeful ending. He plays Mike and His song and rememberers to stop the cat at the door. I believe, he’s slowly coming to get better, even if it’ll take many “cycles.” Perhaps, when he accepts Mike’s death he’ll be able to move forward.

Wonderful essay that touches upon pretty much everything that I love about this film through the lens of depression (in both its meanings - the psychological and the socioeconomic, as expressed through folk music). The ending made perfect sense to me and I would highly recommend Sartre’s No Exit (whether the Coens were referencing directly or not) as a companion piece to the film.

I cannot believe my eyes you don't have more subscribers. This made my eyes wet. You are doing great. Keep up the good work! Love ❤

Very insightful look into one of their most underrated films. As an artist myself, I like how you point out that Llewyn is "in love with the struggle." That really relates to me and makes me want to review the film with that perspective. Great work!

Man, sincerely thank you. This was one of more influent movie of my life, I always loved it, but I never really understand why I was so bound to it. Since now. I perfectly recognized how much as the protagonist I was affected by this sort of love for my own depression. This movie intercepted one of the most painful trick of my life, and I never understand it. Really, thank you, and goodspeed for all the sad people around, watch yourselves guys, there's no superiority on being sad

I love artists. Because they give me the joy of doing something that I know I could, but am too afraid to try. I enter in their performances and feel so genuine

Never thought about the movie that way. Never thought that he chose to be in his depressive state. I only watched it once, and loved it. I have to give it a rewatch.

You really do have the perfect voice for narration.

Good review, thank you. A point I'd like to add is how well the road trip part of the story works. John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund are characters that personify LLewyn's inner speech. A lesser writer may have written the scenes with voice-over narration of what LLewyn is ruminating on but Roland Turner says it out loud, "…George Washington Bridge? You throw yourself off the Brooklyn Bridge-Traditionally". Johnny Five is the buried creative voice trying to get original lyrics up into the conscious mind. Apparently LLewyn can't put them into a finished song, so he stays with folk songs from longago to express himself.

It's very interesting that you look at the movie in the way that you do because I have always had a much more hopeful outlook while watching this film. I've always thought that the movie was about learning from one's mistakes, not falling in love with depression. Throughout the film, Llewyn is constantly put down by life, some of which is his fault and some of which is just circumstantial. By the end of the film though, Llewyn learns from his mistakes and becomes a better man for it. Two great examples of this are at the end when he remembers to shut the door on the way out so as not to let the cat out and when he goes back to the club and is beaten up. During this beating, Llewyn doesn't fight back because he knows that he messed up and deserves this beating, but he has learned from his previous outburst and realized that he shouldn't be mad at the world. Also, when the cat comes back home at the end of the movie, it is an example of how situations can work themselves out typically if you are just honest. If Llewyn hadn't been so focused on lying and catching the cat and had instead been a more slow and methodical person, he may have realized that patience and honesty were all that he needed. If he had just said that he had lost the cat over the phone instead of attempting to cover that up and try to find the cat, things would've just worked themselves out with much less hassle. Even with all of the mistakes in his life though, the people most important to Llewyn still love and accept him despite the mistakes he has made, proving that time is the ultimate healer.

That was beautiful to watch. This is my favourite film of all time and it's fascinating how every article or video essay manages to find new meaning in the film. Shows the sheer genius of the Coens.

What a great movie! Captured the folk scene era to perfection. Masterpiece!

This movie is just so brilliant. It's one of my all time favourites

The themes are mix of acceptance and resentment. The film’s genius is that when you want view it as Optimistic tone, it is. And when you see through lens of criticism and pessimistic view, it becomes that.

Best analysis I’ve heard of this film yet - so good. The only thing I’d argue (which actually supports your greater point) is that the cat isn’t just *like* Llewyn, it *is* Llewyn, and represents him quite literally. There’s even the quote where someone repeats back to him “Llewyn is the cat,” which is no accident. By leaving the cat locked in the car, he’s essentially shutting himself out of the realities and demands of the capitalist world he lives in. By hitting the cat on his drive home, he’s fatally shooting himself in the leg as he repeatedly does throughout his career - which is, like you say, all out of an obsession to maintain his struggle, and refusal to grow out of it. That to me is the central metaphor of the cat.

"Inside llewyn davis" and "The Disciple". Two movies that I first hated a lot. You helped me get a clearer perspective of these movies. Turns out I was thinking the same way, and what I was seeing, which I did not like, was nothing but myself. I have been adamant about the same thing, that my misery is going to last till a certain time, after which my fortune will change. Turns out that is not true. The movies have opened my eyes. I'll change myself soon. Cuz i gotta use the talent i got to the fullest. Thanks.

That song is so beautiful.🙂😞 I love the movie.🙂

Excellent job thank you

Good job! Saw it on reddit. I love how the Cohens take Van Ronk, a very interesting musician, and completely adapt the character for their themes.

I love the cat in this 🐈 Another Coen Brothers masterpiece (I also love No Country For Old Men) This one is so tragically underrated and deserves a lot more recognition #InsideLewynDavis A hidden gem of a movie 🎬🌟

I always thought the goldfiens we’re mike’s parents due to the fact that they let him stay a couple of times they have the album from the beginning and the woman gets really emotional when he gets upset her singing I thought was her coping and trying to think of good times and why she brokedown in tears when he said “fuck Mike’s part”

This move tores apart my body and mind, broke my heart, but then it came together as a hope, my new hope for my existence

I just finished the movie and this review really gave me an insight of what llewyn davis was going through. He was going through so much and others tried to help him but he was willing to struggle and tries to overcome it on his own, but as he did he noticed that there was nothing that he could or change it and decides just to live with it. It's really upsetting to see him struggle through life but as well an eye opening of what "folk music" or depression affects those who are suffering. I never knew that ppl can "fall in love" with their depression and live on with it bc it gives them meaning, it was really interesting and I love this. Well done :)

god this is such a great little video essay. made me appreciate this movie a whole lot more.

This film begins and ends the same way, almost exactly the same. I like the thought about the film itself being a folk song, because plenty folk songs begin and end with the same verse. I just think it’s neat that, like a song, this film begins and ends with the same “verse”

Thank you for making this video.

Hey man, regarding the career path Llewyn tries to take, the merchant marine isn’t the army, or anything military. It’s the crew of shipping vessels like cargo freighters and the like

The commentary from 4:45 to 5:40 is very well written and something I'm sure we've all dealt with

Great summary, one of my all time favourites

This is an amazing take on this film. Honestly I could read/watch essays on this movie all day. Even if people's various ideas conflict with mine or with each other's, I still feel enlightened by experiencing their point of view. I feel like my mind opened up when you connected how Llewyn plays older material and refuses to adapt or branch into original material, with how he's stuck in this rut of depression and is unable to adapt and move on in his personal life. That's a great insight that I can't believe I never noticed before. Your take on the Gorfeins was really interesting too, with how they don't experience the struggles that the original folk musicians did, but they can feel like they do by listening to people like Llewyn. If Inside Llewyn Davis is a folk song, do you think that folk song is Dink's Song/Fare Thee Well itself? In a way, I felt like that song was the theme to the film. Not only is it a song about missing a loved one, which applies to Llewyn missing Mike, but it also describes the sense of an unattainable goal/ideal, in the line "if I had wings... I'd fly up the river..." though the singer does not have wings and can never fly, though they wish to. And of course the last verse and the first verse are identical, mirroring the film's identical opening and closing scenes. Just a thought I've had kicking around in my head for a while.

Just watched this film again and came to RU-vid as a coping mechanism because it’s 4:00am. I found your video. Definitely subscribed. I look forward to your channel, past and future videos.

This was a phenomenal video essay. Fantastic work writing and editing.

Wow, this analysis is too good. You just explained to me why I love this movie so much: I am Llewyn Davis.

This essay helped me to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the film. Also a surprisingly moving perspective. Well done, sir!

This is an incredible take on the film, made me appreciate it even more.

Great essay

Excellent analysis... It definitely warrants another watch of this brilliant film. Thanks you !

Thanks for making me appreciate this film so much more. Great job, great job

I'm absolutely engorged in the way you describe the movie. Keep up with the content

Phenomenal work here. I've seen this movie half a dozen times and never really_why. I loved it so much until I watched your essay.

Most favourite movie. Close to heart ♥️

i really love what you are trying to do here. Much appreciated.

Loved this.

Really made me think about the film thank you for this incredible essay

"First verse, same as the third verse" -folk music

This is an excellent essay. Thank you and well done.

While watching your video I wondered if Llewyn's partner that killed himself is a metaphor for an artists early "inspiration" that can fade with aging and due to a lack of success/validation from others. The fans appear to appreciate the old stuff more than the new stuff. I think he really takes for granted that those beginnings is where he won them over so they love it. They are still supporting him in what he is doing now but he is blind to it and yearns for the good old days.

Just a point of correction- in the scene where he's in the recruitment office for the sailors, he's considering rejoining the merchant marine, not joining the military. The character, like his real life inspiration Dave Van Ronk, is a former civilian sailor. This sets up the joke with the union bureaucrat at the hiring hall who is considering letting him work without his papers if he's really a communist of the right obscure Trotskyist sect, another call to Van Ronk, who was an anarchist first and then a Trotskyist.

A part of the movie is most certainly dedicated to his grievance for his partner. At the end of the day (journey) he let go with the song "fare thee well", which he sang alone. But that doesn't mean that he left behind his self-loathing "self". With the fare thee well at the end it comes the extreme farewell to his dreams - he says he has no more songs to play, but this time it wasn't a tongue-in-cheek phrase he usually says. His journey was a pathway paved with "country listeners in pull-over", the "good folk" he's struggling against in a silent "social" battle (the movie is pretty clear on giving clues that you clearly underlined). The ultimate bitter ending is him being kicked out, like the repeating ending chorus with a twist, of his dream, and be forced to play a part in a role he doesn't want to, be part of the "good society" he doesn't feel he belongs to. Like the poster towards the end "a true life drama"

After having a second viewing of Inside Llewyn Davis just last night, I found your thoughts about the movie to be remarkably insightful and well presented. Although I’m a bassist primarily, I’ve been at for well over 50 years and can relate to similar responses from bookers, talent buyers, label folk. It’s a struggle to hold on to originality, although everything is derivative as also poured out. Oral tradition and common struggles can be mapped through so called folk music. I very much enjoyed your piece and am now a subscriber. Best to you 🙏🏻🕉 Steve Robillard Northampton, MA

I enjoyed your analysis. What you say speaks to me deeply. I'm going to watch the film again and dig into the issues of identity you address. I think a big shift in life could ensue! So - thanks Alex.

wonderful video. thanks for uploading it !

Great breakdown of an under appreciated film - thanks.

Thank you very much for this video, my man!

Such a good essay on one of my favorite movies of all time.

Mann you are brilliant

Great video!!! Thanx!!!

Great! Just great. Keep on going:)

Beautifully put.

This was freaking amazing!

This is a brilliant video!!

Awesome video. Thank you

This is in my top movies of all time. It might be my 2nd favorite movie of all time. I took it as Bob Dylan was the final straw in Llewyns chance because now people have definitely moved on from him. Llewyn getting knocked down in the alley in the beginning is because it’s a sign of things to come. The loop that keeps going on because he’s not willing to adapt or change to accommodate the new talent. At the end when he’s knocked down it’s that last straw breaking and he does not have the chance to change now as he’s let it go by.

Loved this movie and what a great analysis!

Man, you are great. The ending part though, i dont think it was merely a repetition. I think The flim begins with the ending part and starts with the cat moving on the corridor. When the Bud Grossman suggests davis to join and reconnect with his partner, i somehow feel he wanted to sucide. And For him, to die is to leave behind his music carrer so he decides to join the military on which he failed. And i think he was feeling sucidal when he sang Hang me Oh Hang me. I think he was bidding farewell to all. When he stumbles upon the oldman and gets beaten, he says goodbye or something like that to him too. So i think he was having a sucidal thought. And all that Farewell song in the ending of the movie suggested that llweyn was somehow not going to be there for the next gig. Just a thought. Watched this gem yeaterday. I think i should watch it again understand it more deeply.

amazing analogy

I just finished this movie and I was looking for some clarification, but this review made me realize I knew more than I initially thought.

Fascinating analysis. Well done.

Good analysis. I grew up on folk music, have played it all my life, and will always love it. I didn't like the film much at all...though I loved its very accurate and beautiful recreation of the folk music of that time. I guess I didn't really want to watch a terribly dark story about an unsuccessful folksinger sliding down the spiral of depression. (smile) But I think your explanation of the film and of the character of Llewyn Davis is spot on. And it was very well done. Yeah, people can fall in love with their own sense of tragedy and their seemingly inevitable defeat and rejection...which then becomes inevitable because they made it so...and they turn it into a kind of romantic ideal that they cannot see their way clear of because they feel somehow ennobled by doing that. But...I don't recommend that they do so! That is for sure. There are other and far better choices for an artist to make and STILL remain true to the ideals that inspired them. Llewyn Davis is just a sad, sad case of someone making all the wrong choices.

One of my favorite films. Llewyn - to me - is half sad sack, half asshole. Just when I feel sorry for him he does something stupid and I want to scream at him. I think the cat is a combination of success and happiness - Llewyn is always chasing it and finally nabs it just before his final "successful" performance at the club. But then the Dylan character comes to the stage. One of my favorite scenes is Llweyn performing for F. Murray Abraham. Such a wrenching song and wrenching response by F> Murray, "I don't see any money here.".

Thank you! I hope you will come back one day

Thank you

EXCELLENT ANALYSIS! You reversed "U.S. Army" and "Merchant Marine": minor error. How many times have I watched this most unusual Coen Bros film, thinking I had it all figured out? Not even CLOSE. You have shown me a new way of seeing, and I thank you, and I agree completely with your overall framing of the argument. If you have not done it yet (I have not checked) I'd love to have your reading of the Coens' ill-favored "Intolerable Cruelty." Why it is is my very favorite of their films, my "Desert Island Coens'," is something I need EXPLAINED to me, because: "A Serious Man." YES. It is THAT Coens' I would pack for my desert island, but WHY? An interesting contrast, "A Serious Man," with the Safdie Bros' "Uncut Gems," no?

I’m 90% sure that the film isn’t implying any sort of literal time loop, it just showed the ending of the film as the first scene

That God it’s not some drone video essay with some kid that wants to sound like Ira Glass. This is refreshing yo!

Great video!

Wow I normally don’t comment but that was so well put!!!!

To achieve your dream and move forward, can you leave behind the person who had to fight so hard for it? If you can't, you no longer want the dream, but just to keep fighting.

thats why aunt may is very wise when she tells peter "Sometimes to do whats right we have to be steady and give up the things we want the most, even our dreams"

Very nice.

Amazing essay

The Cat is Llewyns grief, depression and love for Mike. All of which forces Llewyn into a "wild adventure" that ultimately ends with his farewell song to his career as Bob Dylan takes the stage and Llewyn finally gets a real life lesson in the beating. Note, when he leaves the cat is when we realize the opening scene was the end but this time he sings Fare The Well...the song he and mikey used to sing. Mikey the cat. Also, Mike jumped off the GW bridge and the cat is also named after a president. Llewyn also HATES the Kennedy song but sings about Queen Jane who both died tragically. (The structure of this movie is soooooooo intricate) I highly recommend A Simple Man. Its like the brother movie to ILD.

Wonderful

wow that was great!

Llewyn is suffering through grief and playing music that is more country than folk, and not in any an early 60’s style. If anything, Llewyn was ahead of his time. He was also up against a generation that only Dylan could reach, like Nirvana did when they essentially ended the 80’s.

Have you seen at eternity's gate? That movie has a very similar tone to Llewyn Davis and it's very good.

Explained well

Thank-You! for your wonderful review... I agree, artists can fall in love with their own struggles. But isn't Life a daily struggle for us all?

This was an awesome analysis! Great vid about a great film.

A very good essay on a very good film, fair play man :) id spout more over the top praise but, yeah x) fair play

Thanks for watching! What's your favourite Coen Brothers film and why?

You missed interpreted so many points you brought up but the most important of them all; which is why the ending is a mystery to you. Llewyn isn't "in love" with his depression. He loathes it. But it and this rut he's in have become his identity. Beyond depressed, he's suicidal - which is mentioned multiple times through Mike's demise and various characters' commentary on the act, but also foreshadowed this way. This is all illustrated in the "I'm tired" scene with Jean. Usually when someone has a bad day, they sleep it off and try again the next day. Llewyn specifically says "I thought I just needed a nights sleep; but it's more than that." One nights sleep won't do. He needs many nights sleep. A long sleep. Death is the longest sleep. As you stated, being/singing with Mike is the only time he felt happy/fulfilled. Throughout the film its shown he wants that time/feeling back. He wants to be with Mike again. The only way to be with Mike again is if Llewyn kills himself. Further illustrated again through the song titles, "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me", "Fare Thee Well". So if Llewyn is leaving, where is he going? Is he leaving NYC? No. He's leaving this life. The old man beating him down is his rock bottom. Which only happened ONCE btw, you were shown it twice by the filmmakers - there's a difference. There's nowhere lower for him to go. Except 6 feet under. Hence the film ending....cause his life will soon be over....so there's nothing more to see "Fare Thee Well"...... You could even take it as a symbolic death of his stage act. His solo act is "dead" now, cause as he said to Jean "this isn't going anywhere". How can you be so dense to not see this? Many of the metaphors and dots you were trying to connect simply weren't there and you're grasping at imaginary straws. The filmmakers, all of them not just Cohens, layout the deeper meanings, understandings, realizations, empathic beats of their arts in their texts and subtexts, and visual/auditory cues. We should all be coming to an objective understandings of these works. Not 12 different random personal interpretations. We weren't involved in the creative process. We cannot grasp at things that aren't there and try to structure the events of the film that aligns with how we interpret/perceive the film. We only can follow the blueprint that was laid out before us to view.

Your voice is soothing