T H U R S D AY | 1 2 . 1 9 . 2 0 1 3 | E X P R E S S | E5
entertainment | Weekend Pass
FILM RIFFS
DISNEY
Man of Constant Sorrow
Savings Time
“Saving Mr. Banks,” out Friday, is an odd film because usually when banks show up in movies, they’re getting robbed. But here they’re being saved! Except the “banks” in the title isn’t a real bank. Or a real person. Here are some movie banks anyway. KRISTEN PAGE-KIRBY (EXPRESS)
A folksinger (played by Oscar Isaac) navigates 1960s Greenwich Village in “ Inside Llewyn Davis.”
Film “Inside Llewyn Davis” starts with a bang. Well, a wet, fleshy smack, really: Llewyn, a fictional 1960s folksinger having the worst week of his life, gets punched in the face. “I think he deserves that punch,” says Oscar Isaac, a Golden Globe nominee for his turn as Llewyn in the Coen brothers’ new film, which opens locally this week. “But does he deserve everything else?” “Everything else” includes having to crash on a series of couches, an unwanted pregnancy with his (married — to someone else) girlfriend, a failing career, the world’s worst road trip, and the cat he totes around Greenwich Village. “I think this is a particularly hard week for Llewyn,” says Isaac, who reunites with “Drive’s” Carey
MARVIN JOSEPH (TWP)
Oscar Isaac stars as a struggling singer in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
Mulligan for the film. “I don’t think he’s necessarily always like this.” Loosely inspired by real-life folk singer Dave Van Ronk, the Llewyn we see in the film is vaguely narcissistic, often hypocritical and just kind of a jerk — but still somehow likable. Essentially he’s that friend whose behavior you often have to justify to your other friends, even
“If there’s any heroic deed [for Llewyn], at least he stays true to himself.” — OSCA R ISA AC, ON THE FICTIONAL ’60S-ERA FOLKSINGER HE PLAYS IN “INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS”
though you’re not quite sure why you like him. “He’s an imperfect, fallible person,” Isaac says. “A lot of us, particularly in movies, have been conditioned that the lead character has to be heroic. I don’t understand that. In theater there’s a lot more leeway for characters to be all sorts of things.” As Llewyn struggles through the ’60s folk scene, he watches as friends become successful doing music he considers inauthentic. That doesn’t stop him, though, from playing on a friend’s (Justin Timberlake) ridiculous novelty song to make a quick buck. Isaac says Llewyn is torn between his desire to connect authentically with the music he sings and, you know, needing a winter coat. “I think he wants to fail just as much as he wants to succeed,” Isaac says. “I think he realizes this [authentic folk] music comes from a place of desperation. I don’t think he necessarily wants to put himself in a desperate situation, but I think
That’s All Folk The “Inside Llewyn Davis” soundtrack will be the rare album that’s a fixture in both your parents’ car and your sister’s dorm room. It combines traditional folk songs like “Fare Thee Well” and “Five Hundred Miles” with new tracks, such as standout earworm “Please Mr. Kennedy,” performed by Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake (who co-wrote the song) and Adam Driver (“Girls”), who sings backup vocals and periodically says “OUTER! SPACE!” K.P.K
he realizes that success might mean having to sell out a bit. “If there’s any heroic deed [for Llewyn], at least he stays true to himself,” Isaac adds. “Even after getting punched in the face.” KRISTEN PAGE-KIRBY (E XPRESS)
CBS FILMS
1 ‘Drag Me to Hell’ In Sam Raimi’s 2009 horror film, Alison Lohman plays a loan officer who evicts an old woman, who enacts revenge by putting a curse on her and stealing ALL THE LOLLIPOPS.
2 ‘The Bank Job’ A major London bank takes a hit in this 2008 action film, but there’s a twist. No, it’s not that the criminals literally dig into the vault. Or that they end up finding a ton of secrets belonging to high-powered Brits. It’s that it’s based on a true story.
3 ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Jimmy Stewart is the banker with a heart in Frank Capra’s 1946 classic that you’ll see at least once in the next week. So much of a heart, in fact, that he kind of sucks at being a banker.
4 ‘Catch Me If You Can’ Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t need a gun to rob a bank in this 2002 film; he just sweet-talked the information he needed out of the teller (who was played by … Elizabeth Banks!).
5 ‘Inside Job’ This Oscar-winning 2010 documentary both examines big banks’ role in the financial meltdown and convinces you that you should just bury all your money in the backyard.