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Movies & TV

21st Jan 2025

Prime Video has just re-added one of the best movies of the 21st century

Stephen Porzio

There has been a renewed interest in the film in recent weeks.

Inside Llewyn Davis, one of the best movies of the 21st century, has just been re-added to Prime Video.

The 2013 film follows a week in the life of Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac in his breakthrough role), a folk singer who struggles to make it as a successful musician in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1961.

The music drama was written and directed by the legendary filmmaking duo the Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country for Old Men) and features an excellent supporting cast including Adam Driver, Carey Mulligan, F. Murray Abraham, John Goodman and Justin Timberlake.

Both an emotionally affecting and a darkly humorous portrait of a failing singer, Inside Llewyn Davis’ ingenious narrative structure, beautifully wintry cinematography and gorgeous folk songs made it a box office success upon release, as well as a critics’ favourite.

Holding a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was named the 11th greatest film of the 21st century in a 2016 BBC Culture poll and the 2nd greatest film of the 21st century in a similar Hollywood Reporter list.

And because of its folk music-related story and its ’60s New York setting, the film has been earning comparisons to the currently in cinemas Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

You can read a sample of some of the glowing reviews for Inside Llewyn Davis here:

The Atlantic: “The Coen brothers’ new movie ranks with their very best in its nearly pitch-perfect balance of biting satirical humour and deep reserves of feeling.”

Dallas Morning News: “When the Coen brothers commit to something, there’s no half-stepping. Every street corner bristles with authenticity. Every song lands exactly where and how it should.”

Metro.co.uk: “The direction is pitch-perfect; the characters unique and eccentric yet fully realised; and the script, woven with absurdist comedy, [is] a marvel.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “Inside Llewyn Davis plays like some beautiful, foreboding, darkly funny dream.”

For more on the movie, read JOE’s long retrospective on it for its 10th anniversary right here.

How to watch Inside Llewyn Davis

This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission on any sales generated from it.

Inside Llewyn Davis is available to stream on Prime Video in Ireland and the UK.

If you want to watch it but want to save the cash, you could use this technique with an Amazon Fire Stick to save money.

The trick is something called ‘leapfrogging’, which is a way to skip between shorter, cheaper subscriptions to watch what you want to watch without signing up for expensive year-long contracts.

For example, you can get a basic Netflix package for €8.99, and stream what you want to watch via your Fire Stick and cancel it before your next bill.

You can then take advantage of the free trials of other services without signing up to them, all from the same place on your Fire Stick, so it’s super easy and convenient!

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Prime Video