Why The Heck Do I Like Bob Dylan? Let Me Explain
#180: Bob Dylan, "The Worst Person In The World," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Language Lessons"
Edition 180:
Hey movie lovers!
As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word!
In this week’s newsletter: A new Adam Sandler movie on Netflix, and he’s weirdly winning me over? Plus the return of one of my favorite TV shows, some deeper dives for fans of Everything, Everywhere All At Once, and a psychological thriller. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” why studio franchise movies are the new indie darlings.
Bob Dylan
On Wednesday night, instead of going to see Jurassic World: Dominion, I found myself at a concert for an 80-year-old Bob Dylan. And I decided I need to tell you about it, en lieu of my usual dribble about how CGI-heavy blockbusters geared toward 12-year-olds are somehow an affront to the art form of your Martin Scorcese’s and what have you.
Now, I won’t lie to you. Dylan sounded like the “after” segment of an anti-smoking commercial, and looked like Darth Vader when he takes his mask off. When he wasn’t hunched behind a piano he was clinging to the mic stand like a crutch, and the only time he talked to the audience between songs was to scold someone in the front rows for breaking the show’s strict no-cell-phone policy. Not only did he not play any of the songs that made him an icon beginning in the 60s and 70s, but he didn’t even play his most popular song, “Murder Most Foul,” from the 2020 album that nominally was the reason for the show (though famously Dylan has been on the “Never Ending Tour” since the late 80s).
All of which is to say…the audience absolutely loved it. Standing ovations after every song, sporadic chants of “we love you Bob!” and calls for an encore (ignored, of course).
His particular brand of fandom has been the subject of fascination for me since early in the pandemic. When everyone else took up sourdough baking, playing mass amounts of videogames or, when all else failed, drinking heavily, I got really into Bob Dylan.
It’s a rabbit hole I fell down initially by asking the same question you all are asking now: what the heck is it that people like about this guy?
And for those fans, how do they come to see it less as artistic preference than some sort of enlightenment? Each moment of his career — going electric, “Judas!,” the motorcycle crash etc. — analyzed in painstaking detail. Every second savored. The guy in front of me at the concert proudly announced he’d seen Dylan perform live every year since 1990, except for one that was the same day as his daughter’s wedding, and even then it was a morning wedding and he would’ve done it if he hadn’t felt so guilty.
The ranks of these so-called Dylanologists include some of the most influential creative people of the 21st century, including Steve Jobs, the Coen Brothers and the aforementioned Mr. Scorcese. They profess not just to like his songs but that their own work was somehow inspired by him, like he’s some sort of mystic.
The simplest explanation begins with Dylan’s work in the early 1960s, when his social-justice themed folk songs contrasted with the doo-wop of the 50s, and even the “love, love me do” lyrics of popular 60s bands like the Beatles. Even his raspy voice and stripped down presentation fed into the idea of Dylan as the embodiment of authenticity at a time when that quality felt fresh, exciting and even a little dangerous.
He became “the voice of his generation” for the coming-of-age Boomers, who felt as if they were the first ones ever to confront the ills of the world head-on. Every generation comes with lofty ideas and goals to change the world, it just so happens that the American Boomers (a group that includes Jobs, Scorcese and the Coens) actually did it.
Then Dylan became the master of reinvention. He “went electric” in 1965, “betraying” his social justice bent to become a rock-n-roll star, and later tried country music, jazz, and even had a super religious phase (take that, Kanye). He’s put out 39 studio albums, and is even credited for producing and releasing the first modern music video.
On a base level this appeal makes some kind of sense. He’s the cool kids’ cool kid. People appreciate his dedication to artistic impulse for 60 years, continuing to put out new work to this day rather than attempting to relive the glory years in nostalgia tours, like Paul McCartney, or try to shake your hips like you did when you were 25, like Mick Jagger (I doubt McCartney is too upset with his decision, considering his tour this year is selling out football stadiums around the world at like a thousand bucks per ticket).
But if Dylan was simply a genius songwriter, even one whose songs were poetry capable of winning the Pulitzer Prize in literature in 2008, he would not have commanded the type of reverend fandom that has followed him all this time.
I contend that Dylan’s mystery is actually the source of his appeal. Much like with filmmaker Stanley Kubrik, as I wrote once at length, an ambiguous work of art can often be interpreted as profound. And because it cannot easily be understood and exhausted, it tends to stick around even longer.
Fans will follow a thread as long as it’s willing to go, and Dylan (like Kubrick) has given his fans an almost endless amount of material. He lies about his own life constantly, remaking his legend so many times it’s impossible to pin down despite dozens of books, documentaries, podcasts and a forthcoming movie starring Timothée Chalamet dedicated to him. He releases hundreds of “basement tapes,” outtakes and recorded live performances for obsessives to pour over. He changes his set list for concerts every night, and even the same songs he changes each time he performs in cadence, inflection and even melody.
That might seem unnecessarily ornery, and makes the man feel inaccessible on any kind of vulnerable level, but it also has the incredible effect of making us Dylan fans feel like there’s still new things to discover about him. Which 80-year-old public figure can say the same?
Signing up for this kind of fandom is really only for a specific type of person, so to claim you’re a Bob Dylan fan is a short-hand for a certain kind of identity. You’re marking yourself as a searcher and a striver. Intellectually curious. Counter-cultural. Unburdened by the weight of other’s expectations, and in fact actively trying to subvert them.
You’ll notice I’ve spoken very little about his music at all, because the myth and the legend seep into every chord and every turn of phrase, until you too are not just appreciating his work but find yourself inspired by it. Soon his lyrics are permanently etched in your brain, and you too might find yourself shelling out money to see him croak his way through a concert live while you still can.
Something New
The Worst Person In The World (Hulu): I called this movie a “masterpiece” when I saw it in theaters back in February, and I’ve been dying to rewatch it ever since. As of this week it’s finally on Hulu!
I know my subscribers well enough to know there will be some initial sticker shock to this movie being Norwegian, both in setting and in language. Subtitles, oh no! But check out my full, spoiler-free review below and see if I can’t convince you that you’re missing one of the best movies of the year.
Something Old
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, Peacock): This week we lost one of the most underrated character actors of all time, Phillip Baker Hall (age 90), who always popped up in small roles in your favorite movies and made you say, “oh yeah I love that guy.” During one absolutely ludicrous stretch from 1995-1999, Hall appeared in all of these iconic movies: Hard Eight, The Rock, Air Force One, Boogie Nights, The Truman Show, Rush Hour, Enemy of the State, Cradle Will Rock, The Insider, Magnolia, The Contender, and my personal pick this week, The Talented Mr. Ripley.
This is, in truth, one of the easiest movies to sell on paper of all time. A young Matt Damon stars opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law (a strong case could be made that no human being has never looked hotter on film that Jude Law in this movie), with Cate Blanchett, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and our guy Hall dotted across 1950s New York City and eventually southern Italy. The settings are lavish and picturesque, betraying the true intentions of a deeply unsettling story that continues to twist and unwind until you’re hanging onto the edge of your seat. No spoilers, but it’s quite a thrill ride.
Something to Stream
Language Lessons (HBO Max): By now you all know my love for the Duplass brothers, who bootstrapped their way from shoestring indie filmmakers into Hollywood super-producers, using that clout to turn around and give other promising young and first-time directors a chance to direct their movies. In my opinion, nobody is more creative with fewer resources than them, so it’s no surprise that when the pandemic hit they were able to find an extremely cool version of the “entirely over Zoom” movie.
In it, Mark Duplass stars as a guy who is gifted online language lessons by his husband (admittedly, I’m an extremely easy target for this premise since I too have been doing online language classes with someone across the globe). The tutor is played by lovable “that girl” actress Natalie Morales, who also directs and co-writes with Mark.
Initially, it seems like the movie is going to be a straightforward You’ve Got Mail-style romantic comedy (which I admit I was kind of rooting for, since I sorta have a crush on my Italian tutor). But it takes a drastic and unexpected turn that sends the movie careening off into a new direction, one that takes it through tough emotional terrain and comes out the other side with a sweet, sentimental story that transcended just the usual fun, forgettable streamer. Two thumbs way up.
Trailer Watch: Blonde
We got our first look this week at Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, in an apparently NC-17-rated Netflix movie about the life of the mid-century sex symbol. In the initial round of press for the movie, it seems like they’re taking the Spencer biopic approach of just making events and interactions up whole cloth under the guise of “well it feels true.” I hated that approach with Diana and I hate it now, because I don’t believe audiences are savvy enough to not accept what they see on the big screen as anything other than gospel truth.
Still, the appeal of the movie is pretty much all there in this teaser. Which is to say, Ana de Armas playing Marilyn Monroe. I’m not not going to watch it.