
James Mangold directs Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton and Scoot McNairy in this musical biopic of Bob Dylan where he arrives in Manhattan, leapfrogs over various musical icons, humps and dumps a few undeserving ladies then ‘goes electric’.
What a self-centred bastard man genius! Did Chalamet hold this back for me? Of course, he fucking did. If you are going to cast someone as an annoying enigma who disappears into his own hype…. I guess, it actually is on-the-nose casting. Inspired me to revisit some Bob Dylan albums after, so there’s that. Mangold is a more than capable pair of hands for this. It ain’t Walk The Line, the times do change at a fair clip without feeling like a carousel slideshow. The supporting cast is superb (Norton, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash). There is a five star sequence where everyone is watching Dylan onstage and you can emphasise with the personal schism his music and genius is causing in each and every individual. That’s the masterpiece. The rest is just fine.
6
Perfect Double Bill: Bound For Glory (1976)
