Llewyn Davis' goal is simply the vague wish to become successful in the New York folk scene of 1961 (that's pre-Dylan meaning pre-where the money is) and trying to move more copies of his already lost-in-the-world album which shares the movie's title. The "struggle" that the Coens allow us to bare witness to is a barrage of bad choices and unfortunate coincidences; there's a dark comedy to ILD: one moment that comes to mind is a hitchhiking Llewyn solemnly watching as his driver is arrested and takes the car keys with him. It's a sickly, un-signposted humor that I doubt everyone will enjoy, but is typically-Coen, which always makes me think the Coens have a fantastically British sense to them.
The Coens understand though that we'll all be happy to fight through a black cloud of depression if it's not only a nice, down on his luck guy doing the struggling, but a nice, down on his luck artist; a struggle that I imagine even the people who don't relate to wish they related to enough that they'd watch through anything. The endless slog of bad luck Llewyn faces becomes a sort of catharsis for an audience seeing how much an artist who seems on the very edge of success, and certainly deserving of it, will go through. And all done under the finesse expected from a good Coens movie.
The actual aesthetic of ILD feels like a bit of a paradox: it has the cosy, homey warmth of the brother's more comedic work, yet exists in the downbeat worlds of their more recent movies. Their recreation of a New York still awaiting a 60s revolution is given a loving care as only can come from people hugely envious of the artistic landscape of a time now lost in history. It's this same cosy darkness that runs through all of ILD and makes it an artists struggle that feels so gratifying to sit through.
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