Mild Spoilers.

This is the quirked-out, darkly comedic, unconventional narrative Coen brothers of A Serious Man and Burn After Reading as opposed to the more "commercial" stuff like Fargo and True Grit.

I thought that Oscar Isaac was dope as this talented but assholish cat who had a tendency to fuck things up for himself with his mouth and his somewhat-unrealistic belief in his artistic integrity. He's that guy who doesn't quite realize - or simply refuses to admit - that his time as an artist has about come and gone, and I thought Isaac's performance nicely captured his stubborn and brooding insistence on failing repeatedly in the name of his art. This was the portrait of an artist as a moody dolt.

And to be clear, Isaac is NOT playing Bob Dylan, or a variation on Bob Dylan.

As far as everyone else goes, Goodman was great in a small bit as a jazz musician who had no problem shitting on the folk scene; Carey Mulligan was very good as a fellow folk singer who was personally and professionally linked with Timberlake, who was fine in a small role. I also dug the actors who ran the label Llewyn was signed to, as well as the couple that Llewyn maintains a tenuous friendship with.

Visually, it would have been nice to see Roger Deakins' take on this world but I really liked the washed-out, wintry pallet that Bruno Delbonnel worked with. And again, the songs were fantastic; T. Bone Burnett once again produced some good stuff for the Coens.

So yeah, this movie was very entertaining.

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Gotta hear both sides