Musician biopics are a contentious topic nowadays. While it can be fun to see the story of these icons, the films often feel very by the numbers and tend to feel more like an adaptation of a wikipedia article than a work offering anything interesting about the topic. This year alone has given us films about Amy Winehouse and Bob Marley which both failed to make much of any positive noise. Now we get the story of Bob Dylan, but with the more than capable James Mangold behind the camera and the magnificent Timothee Chalamet as the musical icon.
The film follows the early points of Bob Dylan's career, essentially starting with his introduction to stardom and ending with his transition away from traditional folk music. I'm not necessarily over the moon about this one, but it's the best we've had recently and is leaps and bounds better than something like Bohemian Rhapsody.
Chalamet is terrific at the heart of this one. I will always have more respect for the actors who actually sing in these kinds of movies, and Chalamet nails Dylan in both mannerisms and vocals. Dylan is notoriously not known for his talents as a vocalist so that may be part of it, but I was really impressed with Chalamet's ability to mimic his unique style. If I have one complaint with regards to his performance it would be that I don't feel as though the film showed us enough sides of Dylan. It constantly feels as though there are more layers to the man but the film never really peels those back, leaving Chalamet's performance somewhat one note despite his acting being strong.
The ensemble cast has a lot of solid supporting performers. Monica Barbaro was a surprise standout as Joan Baez, a fellow folk singer and at times lover to Dylan. Her singing is great but the way her feelings towards Dylan ebb and flow was hands down my favourite part of the performance. I also very much enjoyed Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, as well as Ed Norton as Pete Seeger who adds a lot of heart to the film where it may lack at times.
From a filmmaking standpoint, you get what you expect from James Mangold. The film looks and sounds incredible, and there are scenes where Chalamet rides a motorcycle and you can clearly tell from the sound design that this was the same man that made Ford v Ferrari. The structure mostly works, I just couldn't help but feel a bit disconnected from the man at the heart of the film due to how Dylan was portrayed. I still enjoyed getting to learn about him, and the filmmaking is strong, but I just never quite found myself fully invested. 3.5/5
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