Okay, defend this movie. Perhaps I was influenced by the fact that I dragged my 93 year old father old out in the cold and snow to see this. Perhaps I was influenced by my need for linear plots that make sense. Perhaps I regretted that I was unable to see this with Tribe as we'd planned due to my family circumstances. Maybe it's that I saw the terrific Scorcese doc earlier this year. Or that a couple near us provided a running commentary that made even less sense than the movie. But I hated this movie. It was pretentious, arty. and full of banal speeches. It either idealized Dylan or made him ridiculous. And long, oh so long. Perhaps I got tired of sifting through what was real and what wasn't. Maybe it's that I dislike Richard Gere and even Kate Blanchett got tiresome too. Anyway, this is my biggest disappointment of the year. It felt like Lars Von Trier had directed it.
The only thing I liked was the music. So I shut my eyes after a while and pretended I was awake.
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Say "hi" to Tribe for everyone. Since he shut down his blog he never calls, never writes...
No, having missed NO DIRECTION HOME on PBS (even though or because my job is all about PBS), I caught large chunks of it with commercial interruptions on one of the VH1 digitals over T-day weekend, and was very impressed, indeed, by how Scorsese pulled it together (not like I didn't know he had the chops in this field, after THE LAST WALTZ and to a lesser extent THE BLUES). And I'm not Dylan's biggest fan by any means. But aside from Cate B getting the intonations down cold in the promo clips I've seen from I'M NOT THERE, in the conversation that is shown as it happened in NO DIRECTION, I've had little incentive to go check this out, despite positive reviews and word of mouth.
Overrating the often ridiculous Dylan is a cottage industry, much as with the Dead. What's best about NO DIRECTION HOME was that it got across just what made Dylan so easy to mistake for The Voice Of His Generation, and demonstrates what's genuinely admirable about his abilities. Seeing DON'T LOOK BACK for the first time a year or so before didn't hurt, either. I'm not sure I'll rush out and see WALK HARD anytime Real Soon either, a more direct parody of musician biopics than INT is (which I think it is meant to be on one level), but they might make a slow afternoon's rental doublefeature.
Before I can defend the movie (which I haven't seen) I would have to defend Dylan (which I can't).
Sorry it blew monkey chunks.
I like some of his music-more when someone else is singing it. But this wave or Dylan reverie upon us now is strange. I guess his longevity as an artist evokes it.
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