Before throwing down my own thoughts I read some awesomely varied reviews - people that love and hate the film. I'm in the former category. I'm not a Coen apologist - I hated Ladykillers, and I was meh on A Serious Man. Everything else has been enjoyable for me, and many of them are among my favourite films. Say what you will about the Coens - they've got a distinct voice, and in this particular film they know exactly how to use it. In lesser hands a film like this would meander and be boring as shit. If you described the plot to anyone I'm sure it would turn them off seeing the film (to be fair - there isn't much of a plot - that's not what this one is about) but it's the execution here and it gets top marks. We spend time trying to get inside of the main character, and see what makes him tick, see what others see in him, why he annoys others (Carey Mulligan is goddamn fantastic here, every time she emphasizes a word here it makes me smile, and John Goodman's mocking of Lewis' genre of music of fantastic). This is a film that's purely about the journey with little to no thought about the destination. If you like the Coens and you like folk music - this one is a no brainer (I'd be remiss to not mention a sequence in the middle featuring Oscar Isaac recording a song with Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver that is comedy gold. So delightful.). I wasn't familiar with Isaac as an actor before but he's on my radar big time.
Not everyone will love this film - some will dislike it immensely. As mentioned, I'm of the former mentality. Give it a whirl yourselves!
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