I've had the DVD from Netflix for a month or more, but I finally watched "Inside Llewyn Davis"

I think I put it off because I've read mixed responses to it from a variety of sources, and I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers' work - at its best there is no better filmmaking. But I also find their work uneven and unreliable. I think this is largely because they're willing to give lots of different ideas an outing and don't feel the need to produce a steady stream of nothing but blockbusters. Hence the population of films like "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men" and "Miller's Crossing" (than which there just ain't any better movies, nowhere no-time) are peppered with "almost but not quite as great" titles like "The Big Lebowski" and "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Barton Fink" and "A Serious Man" (all of which I like a lot but which aren't in the "Whoa-what-a-great-movie" exhaled over the closing credits category as are the first batch.) And then there's "Raising Arizona" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" (maybe a couple of others as well) which I just plain don't get. (I haven't seen the entire oeuvre, holding out on "True Grit" and a couple others for some reason).

So I was hesitant about "Llewyn" - also because of the subject matter. As a dyed-in-the-wool folkie, survivor of The Great Folk Scare as Dave van Ronk is credited with styling it,  and a huge fan of Christopher Guest's "A Mighty Wind" I couldn't figure what the CoBros might make of the period and the personalities (and the music) that wouldn't be either parody or hagiography.

Well it's neither. And the Great Folk Scare is pretty much wallpaper - there are allusions to the major personalities (a few of them anyway - Dylan, Paxton, Jim & Jean (I think the only ones actually portrayed & named) and Peter, Paul & Mary (though the allusion is to them as a project that Grossman is putting together).

The protagonist is not a nice man, and he's only moderately talented. There's plenty or reason to agree with "Jean" (and his sister) that he is, in fact, an asshole. There's nothing in the film, neither in his actions nor his words, that kindles the slightest bit of sympathy for him, except that he is pretty good to the cat. Two cats, actually. But he's an insufferable shit to just about all the people he comes in contact with. It's a rare experience for me to reach for the "Stop" button any number of times after the first hour and not actually hit "Stop" but give in to the "Wait, let's see, something might develop here after all" - I forbore because it was The Brothers working, and they've pulled things out before.

But they didn't. "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a well-made film; the music could be more; most of the performances are sturdy, the script is certainly well-crafted. I didn't like the movie, mostly because the protagonist is, after all, a narcissistic asshole.