The Coen Brothers are exceptional among American filmmakers for having had a long and prosperous career without ever significantly watering down or altering their sensibility along the way. You could draw a line from their indie debut "Blood Simple" through to Oscar-winners "Fargo" and "No Country For Old Men" and clearly detect the same hands at work.
Their latest, "Inside Llewyn Davis," follows a struggling folk musician in pre-Dylan-era early 1960s Greenwich Village, New York City. Like so many films by the Coen Brothers it depicts a universe where the guiding principle seems to be Murphy's Law. (Played for laughs this time, like "The Big Lebowski" or "A Simple Man," rather than the darker excursions of "Miller's Crossing" or "No Country.")
Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) is an aspiring, moody folk singer who clearly has some real talent, but also seems to have a knack for shooting himself in the foot.