Watched Inside Llewyn Davis which is probably not the best choice in such a difficult time. I dread calling home these days, people I know are sick, some hospitalized, others home before they are fully recovered - all this following a recent death. All around there is resignation to fate and the feeling that this will end when it will and not much anyone can do about it. My friend M has a mother suffering from dementia - she stands helplessly by watching the rapid decline of the person who was the matriarch of the family and had a solution to every problem. My parents stay locked indoors all day, few families in their apartment building are infected and are self-isolating, the rest are living in fear.
Back to the movie - I am a "Coenite" as the reviewer puts it. This one is different and yet some scenes have the unmistakable Coen signature. For me, one of them was Llewyn and Jane sitting on a park bench and her spewing vitriol on him for possibly getting her pregnant. The rant assumes larger than life proportions, her anger turns comical except that no one is laughing. The movie starts and ends with the same scene, Llewyn can't propel himself out of his miserable existence, he swirls and spins around it infinitely like the earth on it's axis.
Even the moments that have some hopeful element, his life circumstances conspire to render hopeless. It is as if the universe simply does not want this man to catch a break. Such indeed is the situation for people stuck in the endless cycle of waves that the pandemic seems to bring. If you like Coen movies, definitely something to check out but maybe wait until the world is back to being "normal".
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