Timothée “Paul Atreides” Chalamet is Bob Dylan (1941-). Mangold shows a short period in Dylan’s life. As a prospective singer/songwriter he comes in contact with Pete Seeger (an overly friendly looking Edward Norton) and he rolls into the popular American folk music scene. Dylan found folk too limiting from the start, but he made a flying start and is soon the new star within the genre.
His succes sky rockets in a period he is still inventing himself. He goes from typical folk, to more politically themed lyrics and then starts to experiment with his sound, to the dislike of people who want to stick to ‘pure’ folk music. In this ‘coming of age’ proces, Dylan finds different lovers.
Just before I saw the film, I was reading a very critical review in the major Dutch film media “Filmkrant”. The reviewer wondered what the film is about. Dylan’s break with folk music? His escapades? The film tries too hard to be on the train of overly dramatised biopics of famous people.
Perhaps this is true. You will learn only a few things about Dylan, but the film stops before he became really successful. It is amusing to run into an equally rebellious Johnny Cash (perhaps the next subject for a similar film?), get an idea of the American folk scene and its popularity. Perhaps it is best to see the film just as a peak into a short period of Dylan’s life. Formative years for sure and therefor of some interest.
