[You’d have to be living under a rock to not have noticed all the attention being generated by the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown currently in theaters. Silverbelle Sandy and I saw it at the Playhouse Theater in Randolph run by our neighbors, Silverback Tom and Bennett. We were completely impressed by the musical performances and the fact that they were live recordings.
Have I mentioned that I was at the Newport Folk Festival the day when Dylan first donned an electric guitar? Oh really … that many times. Well, it’s true. I wuz there. SB SM]
The movie has unleashed a Hoover Dam’s worth of reflections, reminiscences, reviews, and recollections, many of them thoughtful and insightful. Some of them compared A Complete Unknown to a 2007 Dylan-based film called I’m Not There. A Dylan film made in 2007 (not that long in Silverback years), with an A-list cast that includes Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Gere, and I remember nothing about it? Something is not right …
So, I looked it up, found it on an obscure streaming network that offered it and watched it on New Year’s Day. I will spare you the critical review other to say that this represents a polar-opposite approach to making a biopic of a famous musician than the relatively straightforward approach of A Complete Unknown. Take a look at the trailer:
Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan … seriously? Not entirely, but interesting and not without merit. If you are in the midst of a late-life Dylan binge, it’s worth a couple hours of your precious time.
I’m Not There is just like the song itself: cryptic, where each line is only connected to the line that preceded it, whereas the rest of Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde-like poetry at least has whole verses that are cohesive unto themselves. It frustratingly nibbled around the edges, but I still accept it as a piece of art – just no desire to see it again. A Complete Unknown was direct. Dylan is illusive enough, and will remain so, but ultimately, he is a human with a pen, a voice, guitars, piano’s, and wrote lyrics on hotel stationary making perfect (non) sense in an otherwise chaotic world.
Well-said. Good insight.