A Complete Unknown - Blow in the Wind: The Bobby Dylan Story

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.

"I'm Not There" and "Factory Girl" - The Not Really Bob Dylan Double Feature

*Um...SPOILERS for Bob Dylan's career, I guess.

Bob Dylan, the man or the myth, has interested me from time to time in my life, but I’ve been most interested by how he has been portrayed on film, specifically in I’m Not There and Factory Girl. I’ve always liked his music (though I’m hardly a superfan or anything), but the myth of Bob Dylan has fascinated me much more. Maybe “myth” isn’t the right word (especially since typing “the myth of Bob Dylan” is so pretentious that it makes me want to punch myself in the dick every time I type it). The “character” of Bob Dylan is more apt. I don’t think I really care about the “real” Robert Zimmerman. (I like the six-hour version of the seemingly factual No Direction Home, but I actually prefer seeing the dramatized version of most of those events in I’m Not There.) I’d rather see how Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, and even Hayden Christensen create him. Hell, even watching the actual Bob Dylan is misleading. Watching Scorsese and Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue inspired me to revisit these two films because it turns out that a lot of that documentary is fake. That movie is an example of why It’s always been kind of pointless trying to “figure out” Bob Dylan. For one thing, why should we? Instead, I’ve embraced the characters he has created over the years.

These Two Bob Dylan Movies Do Not Feature a Character Named Bob Dylan.

Rolling Thunder Revue stuck out to me because of the fictional nature of it, but it made me realize that I prefer completely fictional Bob Dylan to semi-fictional Dylan. This first led me to Factory Girl. 

Factory Girl is not a Bob Dylan film. For one thing, he threatened to sue the filmmakers to keep the film from being released (supposedly because he thought the film made it seem like he was the reason Edie Sedgwick’s life spiraled out of control leading to her eventual death), so any mention of his name is changed and the character Hayden Christensen portrays is only credited as “The Musician.” And there were some reports that Christensen had to ADR his lines later on to tone down how much of a Dylan impression he was doing. But it’s still very clear that he’s supposed to be Bob Dylan. 

Aside from all that behind-the-scenes stuff, Factory Girl is about Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s “It” girl who was rumored to have had a short, but passionate affair with Bob Dylan. The movie is definitely more focused on Sedgwick and Warhol, as it should be, but Bob Dylan definitely left an impression on Sedgwick, and may have been what started the eventual rift with Warhol. 

Factory Girl is generally considered to be a terrible movie, but I like it (the director’s cut, at least, I’ve never seen the theatrical version). Liking this film at all is a minority opinion, so claiming to enjoy Hayden Christensen’s performance probably sounds like insanity to most people. But he’s good in this, I swear. Maybe he did have to tone down the Dylan impression through ADR, but there’s still remnants of it there. He sounds just enough like Dylan at times to remind you who he’s supposed to be, but because it is toned down, it never comes across as parody. 

It’s what Christensen’s character represents that most appealed to me, though. The world of Andy Warhol, as shown in Factory Girl at least, is superficial. He seems to be using Edie for her money, and everyone at the Factory seems to be more interested in appearing unique and interesting rather than actually being either of those things. So when Christensen’s Musician shows up to call out their bullshit, it’s a voice of reason the movie desperately needed. 

Christensen has very little screen time in the film, but he still makes a lasting impression. My favorite moment is after his awkward visit to the Factory for one of Warhol’s “screen tests” (Dylan really did this). When he goes to leave he tells Edie “You should fucking hate him!” And he delivers the line with true passion. You believe that he is sickened by the whole situation. 

Whether you like Christensen’s performance or not doesn’t matter. His version of Dylan is what’s important. And this character of Dylan is one of my favorites. It’s Dylan at his coolest, showing up, not giving a fuck, and not buying into the bullshit of the Factory. Did it really happen this way? Probably not. But something happened with him and Sedgwick (there are theories that “Like a Rolling Stone” and other songs are about Edie, and listening to the lyrics after watching Factory Girl definitely makes that seem true [and Scorsese seems to agree since he shows footage of Warhol's screen test and pictures of Dylan at the Factory while the song plays in No Direction Home]). Like most things with Dylan, though, we’ll never know the truth, which is how he likes it.

Truth is something the other “not really” Bob Dylan movie is not concerned with at all. I’m Not There is the anti-biopic. It’s a film meant to show all the different characters of Dylan throughout his career. There are elements of Dylan’s actual history (going electric, giving vague interviews with the press), but it’s more about identifying the spirit of character, and it’s a better movie because of it.

Dylan says in the film that he’s just a storyteller or a singer, and I’m sure he’s said that in interviews, too. The man is clearly not interested in providing information to anyone. And I agree with him. It’s why I find him interesting to this day. These characters he has created over the years are the reason why people still find him so fascinating. There was a time when Dylan’s reluctance to give straight answers was annoying to me, but I’ve reached a point now that I find it all kind of funny. He was being meta and messing with the press and fans before it was even a thing.

I, and anyone else who’s ever written or created anything concerning Bob Dylan, am probably giving him too much credit. He is just a person. But it’s undeniable that he is also a character. I don’t think he has ever appeared in public without first putting on some kind of a mask. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t sincere with his music or interviews or whatever. It just means that it’s all a performance for him. And I find him to be a bit of a genius (and I hate using that word, especially regarding a celebrity) because he created this mystery around himself that led people to try and “figure” him out while he was saying there’s nothing to figure out. This is regarding the press more than anything (a segment of the film featuring Bruce Greenwood as a reporter is devoted to this, although with the added point that Dylan perhaps should have been more willing to be more than “just a storyteller” at certain points in his career). 

For the fans, the characters of Bob Dylan have always been enough. I don’t care what his childhood was like or anything like that. I’m a fan of a few versions of Dylan, which is why I have slightly conflicted feelings about I’m Not There. The segments with Marcus Carl Franklin and Richard Gere are my least favorite (by the time the film reaches most of the Gere stuff I’m kind of tired of it, which kind of describes my capacity as a Dylan fan, too, I suppose). But it has nothing to do with their performances. Franklin, in particular, is great in this movie. But I don’t care for the Dylan who sang other people’s songs. And I don’t like the Dylan that went into hiding. I like the Bob Dylan that was bold and original. 

I like seeing the angry Bob Dylan as portrayed by Christian Bale. The Dylan who was sick of everyone’s hit. I want to see Bob Dylan who got tired of celebrity and his first wife as portrayed by Heath Ledger. I want to see the aloof Bob Dylan who liked to fuck with the press as portrayed by Cate Blanchett. I want to see the cryptic Bob Dylan spouting random words of wisdom as portrayed by Ben Whishaw. 

I only like certain parts of Dylan’s career, so I only like certain parts of I’m Not There. I can’t fault the film, though, because it has to have these segments to cover every aspect of Dylan’s career. That doesn’t mean I have to enjoy them, though. 

Dylan’s career is interesting to me for nostalgic reasons, as well. But it’s that weird nostalgia I get from movies like Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Inherent Vice, that is, nostalgia for a time period I didn’t experience. As for Dylan, it’s not a particular era of his career I enjoy, it’s the fact that he was so important that something as simple as changing his sound to electric caused an uproar. We have famous musicians and whatnot today that sometimes make waves, but our culture is so varied now because of the internet that there are no seismic moments like this anymore (What’s the closest thing we have? When Kanye became a preacher?). I wish we still had a common ground that large as a culture instead of these fractured communities consuming countless forms of every form of entertainment. Yes, we have more great options than ever before, but the sense of a communal experience is largely gone save for small pockets here and there.  

I’m Not There captures these seismic cultural moments in Dylan’s career in the form of a collection of characters and moments instead of a narrative film. So, much like the varied career Bob Dylan has had, I drift in and out of finding it interesting while always respecting the overall work. And that’s the best way I can describe my feelings about Bob Dylan, the man or the myth.

Why Do I Own This?

I’m not going to lie, Factory Girl is a pretty damn random purchase for me. I just bought this because I wanted to see Christensen’s performance again, and I couldn’t find it on any streaming platform. As for I’m Not There, I just really enjoy the performances in the film. And I need both of these movies for when my interest in Dylan flares up so I can re-watch them.

Random Thoughts 

Factory Girl

Guy Pearce does a great job, almost stealing the movie from Miller.

Pearce's portrayal of Warhol is my favorite, but I really like Crispin Glover as him in The Doors, but that was more of a cameo. I think there was a real missed opportunity back then to make a Warhol movie starring Glover.

Man, I'm with Dylan as far as the Factory goes, or at least how it's portrayed here. Everyone just comes across as so fake. Edie's constant forced laughter during the early scenes is unbearable, which I think is the point. She's trying to convince herself that this life is important, but deep down she knows it isn't, and it definitely isn't going to last.

At times, Christensen's performance comes off as a bit of a parody, but a lot of his performance is more grounded, and better for it.

Of course the Musician is a "Have you read the book?" kind of guy.

Of course the Musician is a "I'll prove I don't give a fuck about possessions by driving my motorcycle into a lake" kind of guy. 

I’m Not There

I could watch a whole movie of Christian Bale as angry Bob Dylan. "You can boo, but booin's got nothing to do with it!"

I could watch a whole movie of Cate Blanchett fucking around with reporters at a press conference as aloof Bob Dylan. 

I could watch a whole movie of the movie within a movie of Heath Ledger as the movie version of the Christian Bale movie version of Bob Dylan. I don't think it can get much more meta than that.

I could watch a whole movie of Ben Whishaw quoting Bob Dylan while he stares hauntingly directly at the camera.

This movie reminds me of the grace scene in Talladega Nights (you know, the “I like to picture Jesus as a mischievous badger” scene), but I’m thinking of what Dylan I prefer instead of which Jesus I pray to. 

“I like to picture Bob Dylan as Christian Bale, and he’s really tired of everyone’s shit!” 

“I like to picture Bob Dylan as a little black child singing folk classics!” 

“I like to picture Bob Dylan as Richard Gere in the least interesting segment of the film!” You get it...

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