This film is about waiting, and it is about life. This film is about nothing in particular. Equally harrowing and hilarious, the Coens cast a lighter stroke than ever. A black comedy, yes, but whimsically philosophical: “What are you doing?” reads a God-sign scrawled on a toilet wall in a gas station. It is a love letter to a dead New York. It is a lament for young artists ignored.

We follow Folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscaar Isaac), based loosely on Bob Dylan’s ‘first muse’ Dave Van Ronk, on a pilgrimage to Chicago in pursuit of producer Bud Grossman. Llewyn hopes Grossman will reverse his misfortunes. The journey becomes a voyage into an American underbelly, a hitchhike with irascible Jazz musician Roland Turner (John Goodman). The margins of the movie are near feel-good, but the centre holds a sinister echo of Blood Simple. The Coens’ first movie, whose opening lines – “nothing can come with a guarantee. Out here you’re all on your own” – almost act as a manifesto for this latest offering. 

As the directors themselves have acknowledged, the film has no real guiding plot (which, they explained, is why they added a lovable cat). Llewyn’s repeated failure would become overwhelming for the audience were it not for the numerous moments of dark comedy and the beautiful cinematic artistry on display throughout. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel captures wintry New York with an immersive washed-out aesthetic, making the city appear hostile and beautiful in equal measure.

The soundtrack both underlies and grounds the story: each song allows an intimacy with Llewyn, whose inner vulnerability becomes apparent in his performances. Isaac plays Llewyn with an ideal combination of cynicism and naivety – he becomes more endearing as the audience begins to understand the reasons for his bitterness.

Inside Llewyn Davis does not create any sort of moral outrage around its protagonist’s adversity; instead, it shows Llewyn as talented and hard-working, but simply neither brilliant nor crowd-pleasing enough to become successful. Rather than offer antidotes to failure, the film revels in it. Failure becomes, like the film’s music, sad yet beautiful, an inextricable part of life. For a culture obsessed with success yet rife with stories of failure, this masterful film is refreshing and ultimately rewarding.