Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

"Inside Llewln Davis" may be an Oscar contender movie.  I always feel the Coen Brothers are worth watching, though mostly I don't buy the DVDs because they are too violent or gory for my taste.  I still love "Raising Arizona" the best, with "A Serious Man" and "No Country for Old Men" close behind.  As always, some of the characters are so absorbed with their own lives that they inflict random cruelty on others.  The Davis character is unlikeable, and unlike "No Country", there is no counterbalancing character of moral gravity.  Davis is selfish, though with a soft spot for cats, Mulligan's character is a nightmare, and Timberlake's role so reduced that he doesn't qualify.  The old couple with the cat are kind, but made ridiculous by the script.  The music is the redeeming thread of the movie, and it makes you hope Davis is a good guy, but no, he's a rat with talent.  As in "A Serious Man" we laugh as well as empathize with the main character, who wants life to be fair or just or even kind, whereas it is obviously random.The constant kindnesses bestowed on Davis are unrecognized by him, really, because he's so self-absorbed.  Our expectation that a musical gift comes in the package of worthiness is underscored by the glimpse of Bob Dylan at the end of the film: a man supremely talented but unlikeable.  I enjoyed thinking about this movie afterward more than during watching it, but it continues to make me smile several weeks after, because it captures an era, it plays with our expectations, and the cat.  The cat is the likeable main character.  The Coens nailed us.