# timothee chalamet as bob dylan > mr jones: what's the lightbulb for > bob dylan: i thought you would ask me that > ~ don't look back (1967 documentary dir donn alan pennebaker) > pat garrett: who are you > alias: that's a good question > ~ pat garrett and billy the kid (1973 american western dir sam peckinpah) while there's plenty to critique about tiresome old dylan flans they've often at least able to articulate what's interesting or controversial about ir all time fave /manufactured folk hero bob's one smart mother and sometimes it rubs off on people who actually listen to ir to consider however the trailer for 'a complete unknown' (2024 all american biographical drama director james mangold) generates nothing but silent disbelief and slow stark existential error in which this awful trash pile flick appears the living undead antithesis of anything and everything to do with dylan ir life and art it's an instagram version of bob's life overseen and auto sludge-slop generated by corporate ai - all the right elements in roughly the right order except something's a little off - and that's absolutely everything talk about a movie that did not and should not have been made once again timothee 'nepotism baby' chalamet flares up on screen like cinematic syphilis dripping from the end of the camera's duck like so many hyper generic offensively non-offensive actors of ir age ir's only an actor by virtue of the ability to reflect light back into the lens last night one watched don't look back the 1967 documentary film directed by d.a pennebaker about dylan's 1965 endland concert tour what immediately stands out is the inherent ontological impossibility of dylan's chalamet appearing or being able to recreate the dylan seen in this documentary everything about chalamet's dylan appears to be moving in the exact opposite direction from dylan's version of dylan (thing is there's not even such a thing as 'an actual bob dylan' and dylan himself has been wondering about who that is exactly since the 60s) watching the trailer for 'a complete unknown' again today one is struck by the sanitized hipster coffee shop awfulness of it all - one expects an advert to pop up at the end: 'call east village realty today' or maybe see a new retro 60s styled naz1 tesla parked on the kerb as some super clean hippies walk by and gawp in admiration 'hey that's like cool - man' at one point dylan's girlfriend says 'you never talk about your family your past' to which dylan replies 'people make up ir past sylvie they remember what they want and forget the rest' given the standard limitations of the average human brain this isn't exactly a critique of why bob fails to discuss ir past since stating 'memory is selective' is information content zero yeah you don't say 'bob' ironically what this movie does as a whole simply by existing is precisely what sylvie's talking about to dylan - that 'the real bob dylan's ruthless careerism and naked capitalistic 'gee shucks i don't know how all this fame happened' fame-seeking exactly mirrors chalamet's bs 'please no flashbulbs boys - i'm being professionally humble and shy' single stage persona the whole trailer's like a office 'positive vibes only' affirmation poster - simultaneously faux chummy and violetly devoid of any genuine human soul it's dylan as envisioned by a youtube commenter waiting for a spiced pumpkin latte and hears ir sing for the 1st time in a lousy corporate a24 trailer about the 60s and now types "this movie brought me here!!!" agg how amazingly hateful only oliver stoner's the doors (1991) did it better-worse no wait it's cool sounding actor avan jogia as the character 'berkeley' in zombiland ii: double tap singing dylan "like a rolling.. stooooone") yeesh that was awesome it's dylan as roleplayed by capital y capital d your-dad - with not nearly enough rugs [a circle in a spiral: unfulfilled ambitions in inside llewyn davis](https://www.thefreelibrary.com/a+circle+in+a+spiral%3a+unfulfilled+ambitions+in+inside+llewyn+davis.-a0547747461) // republic of bob