In theory, fuck this movie. It looks like the kind of typical music biopic shit that Walk Hard spoofed (and made by the guy who partially inspired the spoof in James Mangold). You have Dylan dressed like his album covers and literally shooting the pictures for his album covers, muttering lyrics, rushing into his apartment to get parts of songs down, etc. It all just appears too plain and unnecessary. Not to mention Dylan himself has always been aloof and downright deceptive about his origin to the point that films about him have been more about how he’s a different person at times (I’m Not There) or his inclusion in a film has to be fictionalized (Hayden Christensen’s underappreciated performance in Factory Girl). In fact, this movie in many ways looks like the film within a film in I’m Not There. Other filmmakers have looked at this idea and thought, “The only way to tell this story is to be meta or complete fiction.” But it works, and works amazingly well. Yes, the cliche moments are all there, but this isn’t trying to explain how Dylan became Dylan (the most you get in that department is that he is shown to always be listening to sounds on the street for inspiration); it’s a snapshot of a few years of his career. And everything here, especially how he handles his relationships, shows who he is more than any scenes from his childhood could.
But more than anything this is a film about music. I suppose it’s a musical, to a certain degree, which made me finally realize that I don’t dislike traditional musicals, I just don’t like show tunes. When I like the music, as I do here, then I’m on board.
Beyond simply recreating many classic songs, A Complete Unknown is about Dylan’s emergence in the folk scene up to his “betrayal” by going electric in 1965. If I wasn’t already versed in this era, then I might watch this and think, “Who gives a fuck?” But the film does a great job of showing how monumental this was in the music world, and the real world, too. The culture shifted from peace and love to something a bit angrier.
The culture isn’t the focus, of course. It’s about Bob Dylan, and how he cannot be defined beyond his claim early in the film of simply being a “musician.” He coasts in the world, going wherever it takes him, musically. This may seem like a Dylan fanboy thing to write, but he has written songs that sounded like they always existed and were just waiting for him to come along and reveal them.
I suppose this is a good time to admit that I am a massive Bob Dylan fan (as if it wasn’t clear already, but for further evidence, I’ve included a picture below of the Bob Dylan-themed hot sauce I made). It’s hard for me to judge this movie on its own because of this fandom. I’m not sure I would care for this movie much at all if it wasn’t about the music of Dylan, Joan Baez, and Johnny Cash (among others). But I am a fan, and I can’t separate that part of me while watching this movie. So I understand why some people will shrug at this movie, and others, like me, will proclaim it the best film of the year.
Being a fan of the music helped make this film emotionally powerful. I got chills during nearly every performance, and “The Times They Are A-Changin’” scene is possibly my favorite cinematic moment of the year. Once again, if I wasn’t such a fan of the source material, I don’t know if that scene does much for me. (Okay, I’m done apologizing for being a fan; but I did want to make that qualifier clear.)
Of course, this film hinges almost entirely on Timothée Chalamet’s performance. The singing is great, but what made it work the most were the small quirks: the mumbling, the little “yeah”s and “okay”s. A Dylan performance is tricky because he’s like Christopher Walken in that the goofy impression is more famous than the actual way the person talks and acts. Some of it’s unavoidable, but overall Chalamet’s Dylan felt like a person, not a caricature or impression.
The rest of the cast is solid, as well. Monica Barbaro as Baez deserves plenty of credit, and Elle Fanning as a renamed (at Dylan's insistence, supposedly) Suze Rotolo is great as Sylvie. Her performance is most powerful when she’s just watching Dylan, and she has these perfectly sad eyes that convey everything that cannot be said. Boyd Holbrook continues to impress me this year as Johnny Cash (with this and The Bikeriders I no longer see him as the go-to redneck villain in movies). And Edward Norton is a great calming presence trying to keep folk from being swallowed by rock’n’roll.
A Complete Unknown is a good movie all around that, depending on your fan status, is possibly an amazing experience. As a Dylan fan, I plan on putting this on in the future to just live in the world for a bit, even though there’s plenty of actual footage and recording of Dylan (and he’s still touring). This condensed version of a few years takes me to a place I just want to hang out in for a couple hours. I can watch old footage of Dylan all day from classic performances, but since I wasn’t there, it’s a bit removed. With Mangold’s staging of some of these performances (even if they never actually happed [Dylan didn't play "The Times They Are A-Changin'" at Newport in 1964, for example]), it made me feel like part of the audience, and it helped me experience something I miss when just watching old videos or listening to records. So yeah, in theory, fuck this movie; but in practice, for me, this was the most exhilarating movie of the year.
Random Thoughts
I'm a big believer in the idea that movies based on real events are still "just movies," but I still like to know what got changed and omitted. This article does a great job in that regard.
As soon as I get a chance, I need to watch Inside Llewyn Davis and this back to back.
Nice touch for the protester outside Seeger’s trial to have a sign with a grammatical error: “Better Dead Then Red.”
Awesome that they had James Austin Johnson in this; his Dylan through the eras impression is hilarious.
I’ve seen it a hundred times: a woman goes off on a school trip and her boyfriend starts banging Joan Baez while she’s gone.
“You want me to make sense 100% of the time?”
“Did you teach yourself to make coffee?” is such a funny line not just because it shows how close he was to being caught cheating, but also that he’s such a dipshit with normal life things that his girlfriend would say something like that as if he were a dog that learned how to make coffee.
Elle Fanning deserves a nomination just for her face during “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
“It’s not a request-type concert. If you want to do that, go see, go see uh, Donovan. But here, we’re going to play new songs.” This is still accurate for Dylan concerts, for the most part.
Dan Fogler’s “What…the…fffffffuck?” when Dylan calls him out at the concert is great.
A highlight for me was a high Johnny Cash offering Dylan a Bugle. The corn snack, not the instrument.
I know this is covered territory for Mangold, but I would really like him to make another Cash movie, but with Boyd Holbrook and it’s just the pill years. Maybe recreate that eating cake in the bushes picture.
It was a nice touch to have Seeger’s wife, Toshi, step in like historical accuracy personified and stop him from grabbing an axe.
Why were there multiple axes there, by the way?
I know Dylan insisted on at least one historical inaccuracy (though there were already plenty). I hope it was the inclusion of the “Judas!” / “I don’t believe you.” moment, which happened in England, not in Newport. I just don’t like it shoe-horned into that moment.
Holbrook’s Cash sounds a little like Bill Paxton when he gets excited.
Norton is perfect as the sad, out-of-touch dad-type.
No comments:
Post a Comment