O Brother, Where Art Thou? / Inside Llewyn Davis

[School of Movies 2023]

The Coen Brothers season continues with Part IV here, and we picked two of the most musically focused for a double-bill of hapless singers wandering America.

The first is arguably the most high-profile and broadly celebrated film, which comes at the end of their golden age. Their eighth movie, O Brother is an ambitious retelling of Homer's Odyssey, set in the 1930s dust bowl and concerning three escaped prisoners on a treasure hunt. It's a screwball comedy, closer in tone to Raising Arizona than something like Fargo. This mix of Americana was received with adulation by the Academy, and the bluegrass music at its core became a brief travelling sensation.

Inside Llewyn Davis however, is from 2013. Thirteen unlucky years after their peak, and by this time they were indie darlings again. It concerns Oscar Isaac's titular character based on the careers and music of certain Greenwich Village folk singers from 60s New York. Llewin is reeling from the death of his singing partner, and his travels take him from conflict to conflict as he tries to find his place. It's a fine example of a grower movie, since when we first meet him he is appallingly selfish and obnoxious and doesn't seem to change, to the point where he seems to circle back around to where he literally started. But as with Lebowski, the more you watch it, the more you listen, the more of an impression this restless, lonely ghost of a man will leave.

2000: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2013: Inside Llewyn Davis