For an ostensible, totally loose biopic about Dave Van Ronk, Inside Llewyn Davis leans rather heavily on an incredibly serendipitous allusion to The Odyssey, and more than a decade after releasing O Brother, Where Art Thou?, to boot. A story about one man’s navigations through the choppy waters of New York’s 1960’s folk music scene might be the last place anybody would expect to find references to Homer’s ancient epic; leave it to Joel and Ethan Coen to subvert expectations, then, because their film practically hinges on a synchronized collision between hoary fiction and the more recent, very real history of Van Ronk and the folk revival movement he contributed to – at least as far…
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CBS Films Gets "Inside Llewyn Davis"
CBS Films recently put out a press release proudly announcing their acquisition of Inside Llewyn Davis, the latest film from the much-lauded Coen brothers. The news may be better for CBS Films than for the Coens’ admirers and patrons; movie division of CBS Corporation hasn’t exactly been successful, showing more failures (The Mechanic, Beastly, Extraordinary Measures) than genuine winners. However, the company’s fortunes have begun to turn around in the last year or so thanks to The Woman in Black and Seven Psychopaths, both of which enjoyed better critical receptions and either broke even (as in the case of the latter) or turned into not-insignificant hits (as in the case…