Joel and Ethan Coen's caustic, marvelous depiction of the Greenwich Village folk-music scene of the early '60s follows down-on-his-luck folksinger Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac). Llewyn is not a bad guy, necessarily, but there's just something about him that pisses people off. Llewyn is the latest in the string of feckless antiheroes that populate the Coen brothers' best movies, and Isaac turns in an exceptional performance that not only fulfills the role's technical challenges—that's Isaac singing every note and plucking every guitar string you hear—but allows you to find some affection for this prickly, troubled character. (NED LANNAMANN)