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For anyone who saw A Complete Unknown and wondered how close it resembled the actual Newport Folk Festival where Bob Dylan amped up his music, a new documentary will help answer that question.

Among the many films just announced as part of the annual Venice Film Festival in September is Newport & the Great Folk Dream, which documents the legendary (and ongoing) festival in the pivotal folk-to-rock years between 1963 and 1966. The doc includes footage of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band — some of it from the same...

At the start of James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, a young, determined-looking Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) arrives in the Greenwich Village of 1961. He’s immediately thrust into an urban jumble of coffeehouses, bars, zigzagging streets, and tiny city apartments, even if New Jersey locales stood in for the Village.

If any of it looks or feels cinematically familiar, it should, since the worlds of movies and TV have been making return visits to that neighborhood and era for over a decade. You could start with Inside Llewyn Davis,...

Timothée Chalamet has been gaining widespread acclaim for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, which will surely lead to many people discovering the enigmatic folk singer for the very first time. While Dylan has always been an inscrutable enigma wrapped up in a mystery, plenty of feature films, documentaries, and unusual releases give insight into his life as an artist and pop culture icon. Some Dylan films lay the groundwork to understand his status as the voice of his generation during the 1960s, while others will provide context for the challenges of his later career.

As a filmmaker in his own right, Dylan has been involved in many films that play with or recontextualize his legacy as an elder statesman of rock ‘n’ roll. Dylan has been the subject of incredible music biopics that experiment with the genre itself as well as mockumentaries where he outright lies...

Midway through the new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Dylan has an angry confrontation with his girlfriend, Sylvia Russo, about why he never makes any reference to his past. “People make up their past, Sylvie!” he roars. “They remember what they want. They forget the rest.”

Dylan has been making up his own past ever since he told the press in 1961 that he came from Gallup, New Mexico, and joined up with a traveling carnival at age 13, working as a “clean-up boy” and a Ferris wheel operator. Dylan scholars like Anthony Scaduto,...

Decades never start quite on time, pop-culturally speaking, and it’s tempting to say that the Sixties didn’t really kick off until the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, just as “Smells Like Teen Spirt” started the Nineties in 1991. But as David Browne’s new book, Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital, suggests, the Sixties’ spirit really began in Greenwich Village, not Liverpool — and the music that really got it going was written by Bob Dylan. In June of 1963, Peter,...

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The history of one of New York City’s most vibrant havens for musicians and artists — from Dave Van Ronk, Sonny Rollins and Bob Dylan to Shawn Colvin and Suzanne Vega — will be chronicled in the new book, Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital, by Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne.

Out Sept. 17 via Hachette Books (and available to...

Happy Traum, a stalwart of the Greenwich Village and Woodstock folk scenes and longtime friend and collaborator of Bob Dylan, died on Wednesday at age 86. The Hudson Valley magazine Chronogram first reported the musician’s death, and his close friend and fellow musician John Sebastian confirmed to Rs that the cause was cancer.

In addition to making records on his own and with his late brother Artie, Traum was also a key figure in the post-Fifties folk scene thanks to his role as an instructor. His 1966 book Fingerpicking Styles for...

Your browser does not support the video tag. Screen Rant presents the trailer for I Need Your Love, a new music comedy series premiering at Tribeca Film Festival. The series dramatizes the life of real-life singer and artist Camille Trust. For more music industry insights after watching I Need Your Love, check out the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, the show Dave, or the film Inside Llewyn Davis.

Tribeca Film Festival 2024 will introduce the world to the semi-autobiographical musical comedy series I Need Your Love, and Screen Rant has a first look at the trailer. The five-episode series was created by singer and artist Camille Trust and Walker Kalan, and written and directed by Kalan. It is based on Trusts own life, with the synopsis promising that most of it actually happened.

Screen Rant is happy to present a first look at the trailer for I Need Your Love. The...

It’s a warm spring day in Asheville, North Carolina, and Charlie Parr is sitting on the back stairwell of Eulogy, a trendy music venue in the South Slope neighborhood. Later that evening, the singer-songwriter will play to a packed crowd. But, for now, Parr is soaking in every last ray of sunshine before he has to return to his native Minnesota, where winter has yet to fully let go.

“For a while, I think I was feeling intimidated by a lot of stuff,” Parr tells Rolling Stone. “Aging is intimidating.

Music and politics were always entwined for Steve Katz. As a teenager in the Sixties, he’d travel from his apolitical family’s home on Long Island to Greenwich Village, where he’d watch radical folkies like Tom Paxton, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Dave Van Ronk play. He grew especially close with Van Ronk, who taught Katz guitar — and took him to socialist party meetings.

So it was frustrating and difficult when, in 1970, the U.S. State Department announced that Blood, Sweat & Tears – the band Katz had co-founded in 1967 — would...

Danny Kalb, who led the downtown blues scene in New York during the 1960s and 1970s as a guitarist with his band the Blues Project, died Saturday at a nursing home in Brooklyn where he lived. He was 80. His death was confirmed by his brother, Jonathan.

The Blues Project was never a big name nationally, but worked steadily in various incarnations into the 21st century. Its mix of blue standards was augmented by folk, pop, soul and jazz along the way.

Kalb lent his vocals to the blues songs, and his groups were respected by musicians on the scene for their penchant to experiment with new forms.

Daniel Ira Kalb was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He attended the University of Wisconsin and met Bob Dylan, who was passing through on his way to New York.

“Dylan crashed with me for a few weeks...

Even though 91-year-old troubadour Ramblin’ Jack Elliott didn’t feel like getting out of bed this morning, there was a gig to play. Another chance to dust off his cowboy hat, grab the guitar case, and make it to the show on time.

“I didn’t know if I could play at all this morning. I spent the whole day in bed,” Elliott tells Rolling Stone backstage after at a sold-out gig at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina, earlier this month. “But it’s the enthusiasm, all these...

To some, last week’s news that Micky Dolenz had filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to obtain the complete FBI file on the Monkees was a surprise: The Monkees, subversive?

But as it turns out, the made-for-tv Monkees were just one of many pop artists who’ve been the subject of FBI surveillance, monitoring, or some degree of investigation since the Fifties. When it came to entertainers, “the FBI generally opened files for very specific reasons,” says Aaron Leonard, author of the forthcoming Whole World in an Uproar: Music,...

Patrick Sky, a member of the Sixties Greenwich Village folk scene that launched Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, and many others, died on May 26th in Asheville, North Carolina. Sky had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017, but according to his wife, folklorist and musician Cathy Larson Sky, Sky succumbed to prostate cancer and bone cancer. He was 80.

“Pat is one of the best story-tellers I know,” his friend and neighbor Van Ronk wrote in the liner notes to Sky’s 1965 self-titled debut album. “This is probably why he’s such a great singer.

A few weeks ago, Paul Stanley texted Gene Simmons a link to a long-forgotten soul song called “The 81” after his obstinate Kiss bandmate questioned its existence.

“He said, ‘There’s no song called that.’ I said, ‘Yeah, there is!’ I sent him the song and he said, ‘It sounds just like Martha and the Vandellas,'” Stanley tells Rolling Stone, going on to relay the history of “The 81,” the band that cut it, Candy and the Kisses, and why Simmons’ comparison to Martha Reeves was an accurate one. “It was about a dance.

Lana Del Rey is sitting across from Elton John in the kitchen of his Beverly Hills home, where she’s about to talk with her musical hero. But there’s a problem. “Wait a minute, my notes!” she says. “I have 13 pages! Where is my purse?” Elton calls for his staff to help, but Del Rey jumps out of her chair and heads outside to her pickup truck, a black Chevy Colorado with a broken headlight. A couple of minutes later, she returns with a stapled stack of pages.

Del...

“The folk era had died — or did it?” Allen Ginsberg asks, with a dash of whimsy, in the early portion of Martin Scorsese’s new Rolling Thunder Revue film. His observation accompanies the early, non-faked part of the movie, where we see Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Patti Smith, and even Bette Midler sandwiched into Folk City, a Greenwich Village club that had 170 seats and plenty of history. Although the film doesn’t provide any context, the occasion was a 61st birthday party for venue owner Mike Porco held in 1975, and...

In the nearly half-century since author Stephen King began entertaining and simultaneously scaring the bejesus out of his countless fans around the world, filmed adaptations of his work have become so much a staple that we’re now deep into the remakes phase of his prolific output. The 2017 feature film version of King’s “It” grossed $700 million worldwide, 27 years after the creepy clown yarn had terrified TV viewers in the form of an iconic miniseries. This year, horror fans will be treated to a 30th anniversary remake of King’s classic terror tale “Pet Sematary.”

Consider this: There are currently nearly 50 King projects in various stages of production and/or development per the film and TV business-tracking site

IMDb, including: the “Shining” feature film sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” a film sequel to “It,” a third season of “Mr. Mercedes” and the second season of the King-Universe TV series, “Castle Rock.”

King...

Live performances by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, recorded at a student ministry on the University of Michigan campus in 1968, were among the professional-quality recordings unearthed by the Michigan History Project.

Seven-inch reel-to-reel audio tapes featuring concerts by Tim Buckley, Odetta, David Ackles and Dave Van Ronk were also among the recordings made at the Canterbury House, an Ann Arbor, Michigan venue that hosted counterculture events in the mid to late-Sixties.

The Michigan History Project recently acquired the recordings, with the non-profit organization now seeking a record label interested in releasing the concerts.

While there are certain limits to which No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is “a Martin Scorsese film,” given the lack of input he had with creating of the material presented onscreen, his role in editing said material is not only massive as an undertaking: it’s also astonishing as a result, to the extent that No Direction Home is one of Scorsese’s greatest works in any form.

Its relegation to DVD and nothing else will come to an end when the film is released on Blu-ray this fall. A preview advertising this occasion doubles as a display of the restoration that’s been done — which, even in a YouTube stream, is a hugely impressive look back on America’s greatest musician. When taken with the features that round out the new release, as detailed below, this becomes my fall home-video release to beat.

See the preview for yourself:

From the site,...

It’s taken 11 years, but Martin Scorsese’s documentary on Bob Dylan is finally coming to Blu-ray: “No Direction Home” is receiving a new deluxe edition at the end of this month in both physical and digital form. Watch a trailer for it below.

Read More: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ Will Be Released on December 23

Scorsese’s two-part, 208-minute film first aired on PBS back in 2005. Its main focus is on the period between 1961, when the singer/songwriter first arrived in New York City, and his short-lived retirement prompted by a motorcycle accident five years later. Among the special features (which amount to more than two hours of new footage) are interviews with Scorsese, Dave van Ronk and Liam Clancy; the “Apothecary Scene” from Dylan’s 1996 tour of the UK; a clip of him playing “I Can’t Leave Her Behind” in a Glasgow hotel room that same year; three...

Martin Scorsese's massive Bob Dylan documentary, No Direction Home, will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a new box set featuring over two hours of never-before-seen interviews and footage.

The new set will include extended interviews with Dave van Ronk and Liam Clancy, plus an interview with Scorsese about the making of the film. Among the other bonus features are the unedited "Apothecary Scene" from Dylan's 1966 U.K. tour, an unused promotional spot for "Positively 4th St." and the fabled clip of Dylan playing "I Can’t Leave Her Behind...

When Oscar Isaac crooned the songs of Inside Llewyn Davis in the 2013 Coen Brothers film, audiences gained a new awareness of the American folk scene of the 1960s. One of the people captivated by the music of that film was Quinell Oucharek, a Pasco, Wa-based indie folk singer/songwriter (who goes by the mononym Quinell in his work). “As soon as I heard ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’ in the opening scene, I knew that I wanted to do something with this particular soundtrack,” Quinell told HitFix via email. He captured his love for the film and its songs with a 14-minute music documentary filmed at a cabin and outdoors at Idaho’s Priest Lake. Quinell made the project with his friend, videographer Justin Frick, who had introduced him to Inside Llewyn Davis. The film, inspired by the life of Greenwich Village folk-blues-jazz musician Dave Van Ronk, received several accolades...

“Before Dylan... There Was Davis”

By Raymond Benson

The first Coen Brothers feature to be given the “Criterion treatment” is, oddly, their most recent release—Inside Llewyn Davis, which received (mostly) critical praise upon its release in late 2013. Kudos were especially heaped upon the film’s relatively new star, Oscar Isaac. Sadly, while the picture recouped its investment and made a little money, it wasn’t as widely embraced by audiences as it should have been. This is probably because the Coen Brothers typically don’t make movies for the masses. The auteur siblings create art that appeals mostly to intelligent, hip audiences willing to enter a strange, sometimes disturbing, always surprising, universe that is distinctly Coen-land.

Inside Llewyn Davis is presented as a comedy, but in the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre, “comedy” can mean many things. It can be wild and wacky (Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski) or it can...

Anyone who’s ever had their musical ambitions crushed by the ever oppressive forces of real life will find a great sense of empathy within Joel and Ethan Coen‘s great reimagination of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Inside Llewyn Davis. Essentially a dour depiction of the limitations of artistic ambition and musical performance as a viable career, as well as a remarkable portrait of the Village on the cusp being redefined by the arrival of Bob Dylan and the commercialism of the genre, the film stands as a unique companion piece to Don’t Look Back and I’m Not There that pays tribute to what came before with the rye eye of the Coens.

As music producer T Bone Burnett has said, the Coen brothers might be the luckiest filmmakers in the universe, having somehow managed to find both a fantastic actor and a fine musician encapsulated within...

Chicago – When I screened “Inside Llewyn Davis” from the Coen Bros. before it was nominated for two Oscars and praised by critics everywhere, I beefed to myself: Who is this musician? Why does his story matter as compared to so many other real musicians who you never hear about but deserve that kind of spotlight?

Rating: 2.0/5.0

While it turns out that Llewyn Davis is a fictional character partly inspired by the autobiography of folk singer Dave Van Ronk, in “Ricki and the Flash” we get more of the same but in a more forgettable, inconsistent and predictable way. You’ll wonder once again: Is the “guitar heroine” Ricki Rendazzo a real musician and why does her story warrant a film? Answers: No (but it’s another “inspired by”) and she doesn’t.

While Ricki’s real name in the film is Linda, she’s not a real person and neither is her band.

Inspired by this year's nominated films, our staffers sought out books they were based on (we'll be so smart during Sunday's show!) Tell us what you think of our choices - and what you're reading. Kim Hubbard, Books EditorHer Pick: The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald I loved the bleak beauty of the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (which was - criminally - nominated only for Sound Mixing and Cinematography). The Mayor of MacDougal Street is the story of the man who inspired it: '60s folk icon Dave Van Ronk. Best to listen...

The Coens' tale of a of a once feted folk singer on the slide has brilliant elements that don't quite make a satisfying whole

"How does it feel, to be on your own… Like a complete unknown… ?" Llewyn Davis knows exactly how that feels. Dragging his self-pitying butt around the freezing backstreets of early 1960s Greenwich Village, he is indeed "without a home", a formerly feted singer who made his name as one half of a popular duo until his partner threw himself to an early death, a result, perhaps, of spending too much time with Llewyn. He's an arsehole and everyone tells him so – from fellow folk singer Jean (Carey Mulligan), who is pregnant with his child and wants money for an abortion, to John Goodman's aggressive jazz fiend who callously mocks Davis's former partner's suicide ("You throw yourself of the Brooklyn bridge, traditionally. George Washington bridge? Who does that?...

The Coen Brothers movie is immersed in the folk scene of the early 60s in Greenwich Village, where boho survivors still recall the glory days – and lament a few of the film's flaws

Fifty years ago, the tenements, bars and coffee houses of Greenwich Village were the centre of a hip, bohemian society of beatniks and folkniks. That society has long dispersed, most of its landmarks erased by the onslaught of chain stores and fast food outlets. But enough of the Village remains intact that, by squinting in the Arctic freeze last week, it was almost possible to picture a 21-year-old Bob Dylan with his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, braced against the cold in February 1963 for the covershot of the great Freewheelin' Bob Dylan acoustic LP.

It's not unusual to see couples re-enacting that pose on the corner of West 4th and Jones Street, says Mark Sebastian, a neighbourhood activist, musician...

Today Joel and Ethan Coen proudly stand as a prolific and influential presence upon the landscape of contemporary American cinema. For over two decades the Minnesota born siblings have crafted their own mischievously iconic brand of dark fairy tales; dripping in blood, devilish humour and gothic Americana.

Their films span environments both vibrant and unforgiving, their narratives dance through decades of joyous laughter and inherited pain, and from dudes to deadly assassins they have brought forth unforgettable characters of all different shapes, sizes, and degrees of madness. Yet the brooding, often violent, sometimes romantic, but always memorable body (or several unidentified, most likely dismembered bodies) of work they possess is undoubtedly indebted to a figurative road trip of influences.

Destination: No Country for Old Men

Influence: Cormac McCarthy & The American Gothic

The Brothers have visited the haunted valleys and buckshot strewn motel rooms of literary giant Cormac McCarthy only once on paper,...

The Coen brothers' beguiling new film about a struggling folk singer is propelled by a rarely discussed dilemma – when do artists cut their losses and abandon their careers?

• Interview: The dark side of Carey Mulligan

• The Coen brothers on losers, likability and Llewyn Davis

The Coen brothers' exquisitely sad and funny new comedy is set in a world of music that somehow combines childlike innocence with an aged and exhausted acceptance of the world. It is a beguilingly studied period piece from America's early-60s Greenwich Village folk scene. Every frame looks like a classic album cover, or at the very least a great inner gatefold – these are screen images that look as if they should have lyrics and sleeve notes superimposed. This film was notably passed over for Oscar nominations. Perhaps there's something in its unfashionable melancholy that didn't hook the attention of Academy award voters. But it is...

The Coen brothers excel at creating excellent soundtracks for their films. A good soundtrack can be the difference between a scene falling flat or becoming an unforgettable cinematic moment; where would the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now be without Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries blaring out of the speakers?

Longtime Coen-collaborator Carter Burwell has composed music for almost every one of the brothers’ films and while his work is always good, the Coens really come into their element when they choose pre-existing music for their scores. So well is this music integrated that you forget the song wasn’t composed solely for that film, creating some truly iconic moments.

Few filmmakers are as skilled as the Coen brothers at building their movies around the music they use. Often their soundtracks feel natural, and so fitting that films like O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski effortlessly seem...

Feature Ivan Radford 23 Jan 2014 - 06:21

Ivan's latest column explores what music can tell us about a character through two new UK soundtrack releases

Music is a powerful thing. It can be used to express authority or portray identity. The very act of playing music defines us, as both performers or listeners. That relationship we have with it makes for two extremely powerful soundtracks currently accompanying movies in UK cinemas: Inside Llewyn Davis and 12 Years a Slave.

Inside Llewyn Davis

"Play me something from Inside Llewyn Davis," manager Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham) challenges Oscar Isaac's lead in the middle of the Coen brothers' film. Llewyn responds with The Death of Queen Jane, an old ballad from the 1500s that recounts the tale of King Henry losing his wife, Jane Seymour, to gain a son. It's not a happy song.

It's also a clear statement from Llewyn: he's not afraid of sadness.

Having been something of a journeyman in Hollywood, often taking on more supporting roles up until this point in his career – Oscar Isaac has been biding his time, waiting for that perfect role to come his way. Well, for the actor and musician to land the title role in the latest Coen brothers’ production, Inside Llewyn Davis – this is the part he’s been waiting for his whole life, as he tells us that the entire experience was a ‘dream come true’.

Isaac – who plays talented, yet vastly unrecognised folk musician Llewyn Davis, discusses how thrilled he was to work on this project, how he managed to control the various cats he was lumbered with, while he also draws comparisons between the character on screen, and himself as an actor - discussing how gaining self-promotion and the difficulties in making a name for yourself is something that resonates with him greatly.

Inside Llewyn Davis - a melancholy movie about the early 60s New York folk scene - is another tale of failure from two of the world's most feted auteurs. Why are the Coens so drawn to losers and sceptics?

For 30 years, Joel and Ethan Coen have been fond of failure. On trashing plans and turning hopes belly-up. On folks coming face to face with fate, then fate socking them round the chops and burying them alive in their own backyard.

Thirty years in which the Coens themselves have been endlessly, remorselessly successful: showered with respect and love and awards. The morning after the premiere of their new film, they seem close to untouchable. Cannes has always had a thing for woe-bros (see also the Dardennes) but right now the intensity of its crush makes you giddy.

Inside Llewyn Davis, though, is another sad epic of dud luck. A Jenga tower...

Bob Dylan called him his first New York muse, yet Dave Van Ronk never gained the recognition he deserved. Inside Llewyn Davis draws on his story

Poor Dave Van Ronk. He was in the right place – the Greenwich Village coffee-house scene – at the right time, doing all the right things, singing the right songs to the right people. But he just didn't have the magic. And he didn't have the luck, either.

Sometime in the 1950s, when he was a young man trying to become a folk singer, he had learned a traditional song called "House of the Rising Sun" from a pre-war field recording on which it was sung without accompaniment by a Kentucky miner's teenage daughter. Van Ronk changed it around a bit, keeping the tune and most of the words, but adding a distinctive chord sequence that made an already plaintive lament even more arresting. As his reputation grew,...

Take another look @ a restricted 'red-band' trailer, plus all the other clips of footage and featurettes released to date from the new movie "Inside Llewyn Davis", directed by Joel and Ethan Coen ("True Grit").

The new drama adapts "...the music, politics and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture", based on the novel "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" by author Dave Van Ronk.

Cast includes Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Garret Hedlund  and F. Murray Abraham :

"...'Dave Van Ronk', one of the founding figures of the 1960's folk revival, was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a songwriter, arranger and singer, he became one of the most influential guitarists of that era.

"'This is a first-hand account by a major player including encounters with Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and Joni Mitchell, as well as older luminaries including Reverend Gary Davis,...

Conor Oberst reveals that he 'tried out' for the starring role in the Golden Globe-nominated Inside Llewyn Davis

Conor Oberst has revealed that he auditioned for the lead role in Inside Llewyn Davis. Although the Coen Brothers eventually cast actor Oscar Isaac as the film's titular folk singer, Oberst was apparently one of several professional musicians the directors considered for the part.

"I know I told you this when we met, but I tried out for your role in Inside Llewyn Davis," Oberst told Isaac as part of an article for Interview magazine. "Thank god for everyone that I didn't get it."

According to an earlier article with the Wall Street Journal, Joel and Ethan Coen initially hoped to cast "a musician who could act" as the singer Llewyn Davis. "They auditioned a lot of musicians and actors for this part," Oberst confirmed, "to the point where I heard the...

My alienation from current pop is almost complete; the only 2013 Top 40 material I enjoyed enough to play repeatedly was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, from an album released in 2012. So I am officially a cranky old fart. But there are more and more of us, and maybe fellow COFs will find this list useful. By the way, crossing that border of alienation made me think more than ever that saying my lists are of the "best" albums is nearly absurd, hence the new headline.

1. Wire: Change Becomes Us (Pink Flag)

This is my favorite Wire of this century thanks to more emphasis on Colin Newman's brooding. When allied to their chugging motorik beats, it's irresistible to me. There are still some uptempo burners that recall their beginnings in punk, and some more whimsical though still musically solid songs, but it's Newman's dark musings that made me play this repeatedly.

2. Kitchens of...

Film: "Inside Llewyn Davis"; Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, Justin Timberlake, Max Casella, Jerry Grayson, Robin Bartlett, Ethan Phillips, Stark Sands, Adam Driver, Jeanine Serralles; Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen; Rating: *** - simply interesting!

Loosely based on the life of American folk singer Dave Van Ronk, directors Joel and Ethan Coen's "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a fictional piece that is a fitting tribute to a period and place, which is at the crossroads of cultural change.

The story is from the perspective of an obstinate man, Llewyn Davis who is.

The latest film by the Coen Brothers, "Inside Llewyn Davis," is a funny little flick. During their press tours for the film, the always-sardonic filmmakers have joked that the story is plotless, which is why they shoehorned a cat into the movie -- to keep the audience happy.

Of course, this is another of their trademark defections from the depths of their own art; naturally, there's a lot going on in this film, a deceptively simple tale of a hapless folksinger making his way during the early 1960s. The Greenwich Village setting, austere palate and wonderful and rich soundtrack hearken back to the kind of neighbourhood depicted on the cover of Bob Dylan's "Freewheelin'" album. The character of Llewyn is based in part on a number of yeoman folkies, including the likes of Dave Van Ronk, the so-called Mayor of MacDougal Street.

Even more than any historical figure, it's...

Now is the perfect time to catch some great flicks on the big screen. Awards contenders like The Wolf of Wall Street just hit theaters, and Joel and Ethan Coen's folk music sensation Inside Llewyn Davis is hitting more theaters as well. And while the film is chock full of great acting and the quality of cinema we've come to expect from the Coen Brothers, the biggest triumph is the music, which is a star of the film by itself. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the soundtrack is a glorious dive into folk music, and now we have a SoundWorks Collection featurette diving into the sound and music in the film, and how it came to life. Here's the SoundWorks Collection featurette for Joel & Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis from Vimeo: Joel and Ethan Coen are writing and directing Inside Llewyn Davis, which was originally inspired by real-life musician Dave Van Ronk.

In scenes organized like the complimentary songs of a weary 2:00 am vinyl album, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis unfolds as another of their heartfelt, seriocomic, unsentimental, fine-brush portraits of distinctly-Jewish men at an existential dead-end (Barton Fink, A Serious Man) – this time set amidst the grey dawn of the early Sixties boom in the Greenwich Village of folk clubs, earnestness, posing, engaged intellectualism, promiscuity, and artistic exploration. Bearded youths chasing Truth and Poetry, living underground lives in bustling subways and cafes; embittered Trotsky-ites against capitalism with conflicted fame aspirations – Inside Llewyn Davis is the minor-key, muted flip side to the sunny single that many prefer to hear about this era, told with a blend of affectionate black comedy and lamentation for America’s youthful years and directed with masterful refinement by the legendary Coens.

Mythic and elusive in the vein of prime Dylan (the Coen’s...

In this series, Vulture has been speaking to the screenwriters behind 2013's most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. What pivotal sequences underwent the biggest transformations on their way from script to screen? Today, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen discuss a scene midway through their new movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, where unlucky-but-talented folk singer Llewyn (played by Oscar Isaac and loosely based on the real-life crooner Dave Van Ronk) finally gets his chance to audition for the important music manager Bud Grossman. Ethan Coen: I'll tell you the truth. We wrote this script not only quicker than we usually do most of them, but maybe even quicker than we've done any of them. I don't know why.Joel Coen: There's not a lot of plot. In the middle of it, we thought, "Okay, we're writing something that doesn't have the usual engine in...

A new Coen brothers film celebrates Greenwich Village in its 60s heyday, but what's left of Dylan and Kerouac's New York? Karen McVeigh takes a cycle tour of the area

Five decades have passed since America's troubadours and beat poets flocked to Greenwich Village, filling its smoky late-night basement bars and coffee houses with folk songs and influencing some of the most recognisable musicians of the era.

A few landmarks of those bygone bohemian days – most recently portrayed in the Coen brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis, out on 24 January – still exist. The inspiration for the movie's fictional anti-hero, Davis, was Brooklyn-born Dave Van Ronk, a real- life blues and folk singer with no small talent, who worked with performers such as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, but remained rooted in the village until he died in 2002, declining to leave it for any length of time and refusing to fly for many years.

A folk movie in the key of Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis is a drama about a folk singer named Llewyn (played by Oscar Isaac) who seeks direction after the death of his musical partner Mike. Blown by the same winds of fate and/or bad luck as seen in the previous Coen film A Serious Man, Llewyn journeys in and out of the lives of various characters (played by Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, and F. Murray Abraham among others) with a nameless cat in tow. Set in a pre-Bob Dylan 1961 New York City, the film features numerous scenes of musical performance from Isaac, with the Coen Brothers using famous folk songs to further enrich their narrative about mortality, loosely inspired by the life of Dave Van Ronk.

Though Isaac has appeared in numerous films like Drive, Sucker Punch, Robin Hood and 10 Years, this is the former Juilliard grad’s first lead role.

It is that time again when the year is drawing to a close and the cinematic twelvemonth is summed up in a myriad Best Of lists and the trophy cabinets are being prepped from the Academies on both side of the Atlantic to hand out their golden trinkets.

We, too, are continuing our tradition of awarding The Truffles – the annual HeyUGuys movie awards where when we make up the categories in order than the prizes given more accurately reflect our feelings on year in film. The team have given their choices below, if you care to you can click here to see our previous years’ awards, and finally see you all next year!

Stefan Pape

Best Jason Statham One-Liner of the Year: “I’ll kill you with this spoon” – Hummingbird

Fans of Jason Statham (you’re out there somewhere…) will have been thrilled with the amount of ‘Stath’ that illuminated the big screen this year,...

Films about musicians are remarkably common. Artists from one medium have always loved to put themselves in the well-worn shoes of craftsmen from another. Most of them are stories of an underrated talent rising to the top of his profession, designed for both audience and filmmaker to live vicariously through the protagonist’s success.

“Inside Llewyn Davis,” the latest masterpiece from Joel & Ethan Coen, is not one of those stories. Its title character is kind of a jerk, probably not the most talented musician in his circle of friends, and struggles with real-life issues like unplanned pregnancies and just finding a place to sleep as much as he does with his profession. He is also one of the most fascinating film characters in years, the driving force behind a remarkable piece of cinema – a tonal tightrope act by the Coens that is comedy, drama, musical, and something completely new at the same time.

Chicago – One of more memorable performances of 2013 is from an actor who has been a bit under the radar – Oscar Isaac. After character parts in several familiar films, like “The Nativity Story,” “Sucker Punch” and “The Bourne Legacy,” Isaac steps out as the lead in the new Coen Brothers film, “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

The Guatemalan born actor grew up in Miami, and graduated from the Julliard School in New York City – in the same class as Jessica Chastain. He also played guitar and sang lead vocals in a band, which prepared him well for his role as folk singer Llewyn Davis. He has moved up the movie star chain after landing his first role as Joseph in “The Nativity Story” (2006), and has worked steady as a movie actor ever since.

Oscar Isaac and his Feline Companion in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

Photo credit: CBS Films

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is the 16th...

I was married to and managed Dave Van Ronk, the folksinger whose memoir spurred the Coen brothers' new movie, Inside Llewyn Davis. David and I were together from fall 1957 to fall 1968 and had been married for seven of those years when we separated amicably and regretfully. We remained good friends until he died. No one ever contacted me about the movie; Oscar Isaacs tried to, but I didn't get his message. We met once while it was being filmed. So I don't know much more about its creation than anyone else. I knew the movie portrayed someone who eluded success -- or whom success eluded. I knew it wasn't supposed to be about David but used some of his memoir as background and his music as a...