'Inside Llewyn Davis' Debuts At Cannes Film Festival: Coen Brothers Latest Hailed In Early Reviews

The First Word On 'Inside Llewyn Davis'

Based on an early wave of rapturous tweets and reviews, it appears the 2013 Cannes Film Festival has its first truly great film: Joel and Ethan Coen's 1960s folk drama "Inside Llewyn Davis."

"The Coens have again taken a real time and place and freely made it their own, drawing on actual persons and events for inspiration, but binding themselves only to their own bountiful imaginations," wrote Scott Foundas of Variety in one of the film's first reviews posted online. "The result is a movie that neatly avoids the problems endemic to most period movies --and biopics in particular -- in favor of a playful, evocatively subjective reality."

Starring Oscar Isaac as the title folk singer and a cast of recognizable stars (ranging from Carey Mulligan to Justin Timberlake to John Goodman to "Girls" favorite Adam Driver), "Inside Llewyn Davis" follows a down-on-his-luck musician and his attempts to break through to stardom.

"The one question some might be left with is, why are we watching the story of a loser instead of a winner?" Todd McCarthy wrote in his review of the film for THR. "But part of the point is that often there’s but a hair’s-breadth difference between the two."

"Inside Llewyn Davis" is set for release on Dec. 6 via CBS Films; "Davis" will expand wider on Dec. 20 and seems right on track to be one of the year's most-discussed Oscar contenders. Below, an assortment of tweets and retweets about the film from those critics and writers who attended the film's first screening at Cannes.

Cannes Film Festival

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