That's because his life WAS a verse that never reached a chorus.

A lot of people said that this movie really hit them... First time around i didn't feel that, but what happened is that i couldn't stop thinking about it. i had to see it again, and that's where it hit me right in the hearth.

I'd like to see MK revisit this. I've seen it about 5 times now and it resonates more deeply each time. It's about a man who has offended the universe somehow, and for whom the stars just won't align. When he finally gets a gig at which the New York Times critic is in attendance, he sings beautifully but the next on the bill is another unknown called Bob Dylan. As he departs to get beaten up in the alley outside, he casts an impressed glance at the stage as the young Dylan begins his set. You know who the Times piece is going to be about the next day. It's a symphony of agony. I love the phrase that this is a life that is all verse and no chorus. The latticework of mischance that prevents the chorus from being reached is subtle, cruel, but in it's own way, has a beautiful symmetry

Outer! Space! Outer! Space!

Some will not understand the depth of this piece.  Llewyn has so much talent but life slaps him in the face around every corner.  It's brilliant and haunting.  The music is mesmerizing.  Thanks Coen brothers, bravo!

Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the greatest films ever made.

Llewyn Davis and Her were my favorite films of the year. Deeply moving, to myself at least

This was my fav Coen bros. work yet. It expanded on the themes of Serious Man and made them more secular and all-embracing. I thought it was the most beautiful and humanizing and sincere work they've done.

This film is a masterpiece

I think this movie has an absolutely clear point.  It has a few points in fact.  Its a perfectly done Coen Brothers movie that allows you the viewer to take what you take from it.  The fact that there is no consensus on why its good or why its bad or if it had a true point or not is exactly the point.  If you can't identify with the character you won't find it good.  If you can like i do then you find it amazing.  Its got a great built in motif of wrong place wrong time wrong choice.  Its not about one giant choice that will crush you but those slew of choices that life throws at you and what happens if you end up picking wrong every time.  Even in Llewyn's turning point moment he chooses wrong.  Ulysses the cat (name is latin for Odysseus as in the main character in the Odyssey) comes around every time a choice comes around that could get Llewyn on the right path and always something happens usually self inflicted that deters him again.  I believe Akron exit was his big moment and he chose again to pass it by then he almost hits the cat right after that.  Or maybe he did hit the cat and it lets us know…there's more coming but this is really the end of the line.  So many wrong turns for a man no matter how small they seem ultimately leave you with no where to go.  So it may seem like it ended without a resolution but actually it ended with Bob Dylan, the man who Llewyn could have been had he made better choices and been in the right places at the right time, but instead he gets his ass kicked in the alley and the movie ends with his final choice.  Instead of reflecting and thinking damn i gotta stop this…he smirks and takes it in stride..he accepts his mediocrity.  He'll continue to be great and yet get nowhere.  

Anyway thats MY take on the movie I hope it makes sense for some of you that may read it.

Oscar should get an Oscar.

I now consider this their best movie even above 'The Big Lebowski'. That grim scene where auditions for F Murray Abraham slay, his resignation... "I don't see any money here."... "Okay. Thank you for your time." :(

This is why I love film so much. It seems to be the only medium of art that can pack in so much subjective meaning grounded in reality. I've only heard praise about this movie and coming to this review, it's the only review that has challenged this film in a way that actually makes sense. The best part of it is that everything that he said was "wrong" with this movie were the reasons why I loved this movie.

It seems like every blockbuster follows an outline and veers from it to create surprises, but movies like this completely throw away that outline and make you THINK something will happen for the cliche surprise, when in fact it doesn't go that way at all. I loved the fact that this movie basically flatlined from beginning to end in such a contained little world because it completely reflected the world that he lived in.

It's such a depressive movie that ends up leaving you kind of happy in a confusing way because those positive emotions are. All those positive emotions come from how you relate directly to the movie without any twists and turns being thrown at you to sway you one way or another.

The whole feeling of a contained story is something so new that it seems refreshing to me because it wasn't small in a bad way. It focused on one person and one person only, with so many hints of what came before and what is to come after.

I loved it.

But he DOESN’T let the cat out at the end! He picks himself up after his second beat-down! Progress at  Llewyn’s pace is still progress. And that’s how you end up remembered (Dave) vs famous (Dylan).

I re-watched this last night for about the 4th time, I think like most of their films there's more and more to pick up on each time you watch it.

Start to finish this movie never lets you go. GREAT music, beautiful storyline that revolves around a guy that just can't get a break, but never quits trying. It really looks like Greenwich Village from that era. John Goodman plays a junkie brilliantly. The whole movie just connects with the viewer. Coen Bros hit a real home run here. This movie will be entertaining people long after we're all dead. “If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it's a folk song.”

Funny you said that he missed the boat, because he literally can't get that job as a mariner :D

One of my favorite movies ever. Gets better each time I watch it.

I completely get what Kermode is saying about the self-contained aspect, and I agree that on my first viewing this separated me from a deeper connection with the film. But then after been given time to brew and after a few more viewings, this is probably my favourite film of all time. Because of its lack of explicit meaning and its self-contained element, it becomes so personal and so deep. It is life itself, wandering without direction or reason, lost and confused, eternal existence. The film is unique in that it doesn't try and be perfect or satisfy the audience. I speaks directly to the soul.

This film and Serious Man are two Coen masterpieces.