“King Midas’ idiot brother”: the Coen brothers and losers
There’s a loser in all of us, and nobody is more painfully aware of this fact than the Coen Brothers. With Inside Llewyn Davis, they yet again raise a toast, to douchebags everywhere. By Sam Warner
“You’re an asshole”. Though Carey Mulligan’s Jean spits these harsh words early on in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, before we have time to judge film’s eponymous lead character for ourselves, we already know that he will fit into a canon of characters that are trademark for the Coens.
The loser has been a staple of their films, right from Nicolas Cage’s “Hi” McDunnough in Raising Arizona to Larry Gopnik in A Serious Man. The iconic Dude from The Big Lebowski, a film that has become a staple of modern pop culture and a sacred text for slackers everywhere, is the ultimate loser. But what makes them all so appealing?
If you look at most movies, you’re more than likely to find a loser that you empathise with. The Godfather (Parts I & II)? You couldn’t help but feel for Freddo by the end of the second instalment. And what about most of the characters that the late Philip Seymour Hoffman played? The troubled theatre genius Caden Cotard in Synecdoche, New York, his life falling apart as he strives to finish his masterpiece, is one particular standout — we observe his downtrodden midlife crisis, yet we empathise so fully with him.
This is what the Coens do best. Even Hoffman’s bumbling Brandt in Lebowski is hateful yet loveable in equal measure, a sycophant that serves the “real” Jeffrey Lebowski. But his character only serves a fraction of what is considered the ultimate deadbeat movie, a film that is essentially about nothing.
Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski aims to get compensation for his urine-soaked rug after a screw-up with another man of the same name (who just happens to be a multi-millionaire). The Dude’s is a life of disconnection and pleasurable apathy. He subsequently gets himself too far in, and makes far too many enemies. “I don’t like your jerk-off name, I don’t like your jerk-off face, and I don’t like you. Jerk-off”.
Though it contains some of the best quotes in movie history, its success partly lies in its everyman appeal. We wear t-shirts with “the Dude abides” written on them, and quote Walter’s “Am I the only one…” line in memes. In losers we find an ingrained connection, because we all are essentially losers.
Inside Llewyn Davis continues the Coen’s obsession with losers. We may hate Llewyn as much as Jean does, but his is the perspective we assume while engrossed the film. The Coen’s put us in that position and make us realise that we are ultimately helpless in our environment — hence the film’s cyclicality. We root for Llewyn, even though we’re painfully aware that we’re willing him in circles.
Joel and Ethan Coen thus pay tribute to human helplessness and celebrate losers, even whilst showing them for what they are. The fool has always been a supporting staple of cinema, but the Coens put them firmly centre-frame, conveying the truth of our situation (and delivering some cracking lines while they’re at it).
Originally published at abstractmag.com on March 13, 2014.
