The trailer for Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers' latest movie that revolves around the burgeoning folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, has finally been released—and suffice to say, it looks fan-fucking-tastic. It's got a little bit of everything: ginger cats on the subway! John Goodman with a "hip" beard! A glimpse of Justin Timberlake! Historically accurate old NYC! And Bob Dylan's "Farewell" on the soundtrack! Watch it below.
Last year around this time, the Coen Brothers transformed the East Village into Greenwich Village of the 1960s while filming the movie; you can see some very cool photos of it here.
In addition to Timberlake and Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac stars as the titular character, who is based on legendary folkie Dave Van Ronk; the whole movie is loosely based on Van Ronk's posthumously published memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street, which we strongly recommend. And it seems Isaac can do a credible Van Ronk: below, check out Isaac performing one of Van Ronk's classics, "Dink's Song."
Van Ronk let Dylan crash on his couch for months when he first arrived in NYC from Minnesota; he introduced him to the Greenwich Village scene, with Van Ronk's wife even booking gigs for him. Most importantly, Dylan absorbed elements of Van Ronk's larger-than-life personality, as well as his interpretative skills: "He turned every folk song into a surreal melodrama, a theatrical piece," Dylan wrote in Chronicles. "Every night I felt like I was sitting at the feet of a timeworn monument...Later, when I would record my first album, half the cuts on it were renditions of songs that Van Ronk did. It's not like I planned that, it just happened. Unconsciously I trusted his stuff more than I did mine."
Below, you can hear Dylan and Van Ronk hilariously covering Woody Guthrie's "Car Song."
