'Inside Llewyn Davis' (Part 2)

Part two of our deep dive into Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis picks up where we left off. In this episode, we turn to the choices Llewyn Davis makes across the film, and what they reveal about his character.

We also go looking for the real people hiding inside this film. Inside Llewyn Davis is loosely inspired by the life of folk legend Dave Van Ronk, and the film is populated with characters drawn from the real 1960s music scene: Roland Turner's washed-up, cane-wielding jazzman is widely read as an echo of Doc Pomus, and the fresh-faced soldier-folksinger Troy Nelson is a clear nod to Tom Paxton. We dig into how the Coens used these real musicians as raw material — bending fact into fiction in the same way folk music itself has always worked.

Finally, we tackle the film's ending--one of the most debated final scenes in modern American cinema. Why does the film end where it begins? What does Llewyn's last line actually mean? And why might this be one of the most quietly devastating conclusions the Coen Brothers have ever written?

This is part two of our special two-part series on Inside Llewyn Davis. Haven't heard part one yet? Please start there first.

Inside Llewyn Davis stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, and F. Murray Abraham, with music produced by T Bone Burnett.

They Shoot Films is a podcast about the films that matter. New episodes monthly.