BEFORE: Since we're at the halfway point for the year, maybe it's time to pause and take stock. I had this linking problem because the next film queued up in the chain was "Old Dads", with Rachael Harris carrying over from "Daddy Day Care". BUT as I said yesterday, I didn't see her anywhere in the film, she's listed in the cast on IMDB but not on Wikipedia. You know, from time to time this happens, at least it's not MY mistake from reading the credits wrong, or my software pasting her name where it's not supposed to be.
Here's what I think happened - her scenes in "Daddy Day Care" were cut from the film, that happens too, from time to time. The credits list her as a "co-worker" named Elaine and I went back and scanned through the film again, looked at all the office scenes, and again, did not see her. I googled her name with the title of the film and found a posting in a forum from another person, several years old, but also wondering where she is in the film, because that person watched the whole film TWICE and didn't see her either. So I suspect she's not there, her scenes got cut and only the credit remained. I could just not mention it at all, watch "Old Dads" next and you would never know the difference - but I would know that the chain got broken and it would keep me up nights if I didn't try to fix it.
So I found a work-around, if I just follow a different actor out of "Daddy Day Care" I can make it right, all I have to do is drop one film that I've been trying to get to, flip another section of four films around backwards, and it will re-connect to the chain exactly where I originally planned to be, the film that's going to connect to the start of the Doc Block. I'm still going to get there at the same time, I'm still going to get to two more Father's Day films, though a bit later than planned, and I'll be watching almost the exact films this week I planned to, just in a different order. OK? And the chain remains unbroken, that's the important thing. I'll leave Rachael Harris' name in the credits, but since I didn't see her and I can't find any third party proof that she's in "Daddy Day Care", I can't in good conscience use her as a link. Anyway, I've been itching to watch "A Complete Unknown", so it's a win all-around. AND by changing the order and adding this film at the last minute, I can send out an unplanned Birthday SHOUT-out to Monica Barbaro, born on June 17, 1989 - she plays Joan Baez, which I'm guessing is a major role in this film.
Speaking of Joan Baez, I'm planning to watch a documentary about her that got left out of last year's Doc Block. I've got TWO others on the docket about Johnny Cash, and TWO with Al Kooper, and we'll probably see the real Bob Dylan in some archive footage somewhere. Remember that it's just one week until the Doc Block starts on June 23, and the set list is solid, the only one I might want to add at this point is the one about Barbara Walters, but I can't do that until I know who's in it, which will tell me where to put it. I can hold a place for it in August (where I THINK it might fit) but if the linking's not there, I'll have to sideline that one and start next year's documentary line-up with it.
Here at the halfway point of Movie Year 17, there's a three-way tie for the most appearances, between Sally Field, Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson, who have all been in NINE films. Allison Janney is in 2nd place with 7 appearances, thanks to "A Thousand Words". And tied for third place are Joe Chrest, Eddie Murphy and Channing Tatum with 6 each. But we're coming up on the Doc Block, which should shake things up a bit.
Finally, an update on the October Shock Block, I've been working with the cast lists for the horror films on my radar, and I've put together TWO chains of 19 or 20 films - which is fine because I may be busy in October plus we may take a week to go back down to North Carolina and visit my parents, so 19 or 20 films would be enough. One chain would have "Renfield", "Nosferatu", "Kraven the Hunter", "Hocus Pocus" and the reboot of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and the other chain would focus heavily on Bruce Campbell and then transition to the "Final Destination" and "Candyman" films. I'm leaning toward watching the first one and saving the second one for next year, but right now I'm not sure which one I can link to from whatever I watch in September, so I have to keep my options open. I don't know if I'll be able to put a horror chain together in 2027, by then I may just have little mini-chains that don't connect to each other, we'll see. There's always the "Saw" franchise, I guess, there are like 9 or 10 of those films.
Elle Fanning carries over from "Daddy Day Care".
THE PLOT: In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons while on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world.
AFTER: And of course, I have stories from the front lines on this one, because I worked at the premiere of "A Complete Unknown" late last year, December 13, 2024, 12 days before the official release of the film on Christmas. Elle Fanning was there, so was Edward Norton, I was working outside so I saw them on the red carpet, and director James Mangold as well. And there were fences put up to corral the many Timothée Chalamet fans that were there, and he did come back out of the red carpet tent to meet with some of the fans. I swear to you that at that the same time, a woman passed out in the street, now I'm not saying there was a direct connection, but it did happen. I'm a professional, so my first responsibility was to make sure that the police officer on duty called for an ambulance, the event had plenty of security guards who made sure the woman was safe, but I made sure the EMTs got there quickly, and I checked with them about her condition every few minutes. She was fine, I believe she recovered in time to watch the movie, and I just had to fill out an incident report about it - I resisted the urge to write that she passed out from an overdose of Chalamet.
The film kind of blew me away - although maybe anything would have looked spectacular after "Daddy Day Care", so it's a bit tough to say. But they really nailed the LOOK of 1961 Greenwich Village, or at least the way I imagine it to be. There are streets in the West Village that still maybe look a lot like they did back then, or if you go to St. Mark's Place and say, 2nd Ave. you may find that block is just as dumpy as it ever was, only now it has more weed stores and cell phone dealers. So how did they nail this look? Ah, they shot in New Jersey, it seems like they found blocks in Jersey City or Red Bank or Elizabeth that could be transformed into streets with East Village cafés and record stores with a little effort, or maybe it was CGI, who can say? All I know is they somehow duplicated the facade of the 8th St. Playhouse (only, NITPICK POINT, the marquee is on the wrong side, don't ask me how I know this.). You know what, I don't want to know whether it was CGI or a backlot or magic, for once. Let's just let it be.
But it FEELS like they stuck an electrode in to Bob Dylan's brain and asked him to remember coming to NYC in 1961, the set design is THAT good. I know we don't have that tech yet, and I know that A.I. isn't good enough to do this yet, because then the background players or the crowd at the concerts would have extra arms and legs or something. Maybe they got 1,000 people to pretend to be watching the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, I don't know. But it sure looked real and authentic. There a couple shots that just HAD to be shot in NYC, like the exterior of the Chelsea Hotel, which probably does look exactly like it did in the 1960's. Inside and outside, because it's got historical landmark status and you can't alter it.
This is a film about fame, what it means to want to be famous, what it means to BE famous, and then what comes after, which in some cases results in a famous person wishing to be anonymous again, or at least incognito, because of all the ramifications of fame. Now, by no means was Bob Dylan the first person to have groupies, because there was Elvis and Ricky Nelson and probably Buddy Holly got his share of women throwing themselves at him, too. This is part of the deal, it comes with the territory, just maybe Bob Dylan wanted it and then wasn't ready to handle it. But he was probably the first "folk" singer to be a superstar, you just can't imagine Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie having ravenous fans, right? Or girls lining up outside the concert hall for the Kingston Trio to have a chance to go backstage and party with the group.
Here's how Dylan was ahead of his time - first, networking. I don't know if they called it that back then, but as soon as he came to town, he visited Woody Guthrie in the hospital, he was just that much of a fan. Pete Seeger was there, and once Seeger heard Dylan play, he thought he'd found the new voice of folk music, someone who could reach the younger crowds in a new way. He wasn't wrong, but if Dylan hadn't gone to the hospital, the journey might have taken longer, with years spent playing in little cafés trying to get something going. Writing letters to Johnny Cash apparently went a long way, too.
Second, what we now call "influencing", which back then was just self-promotion. Be seen, be loud, get a motorcycle. Wear a hat, wear a leather jacket, something people will remember when you play the clubs. Hook up with Joan Baez, who already knows the club scene and is close to landing a record deal. Then of course, keep writing songs and pushing the creative envelope in hopes of getting a record contract, too. Johnny Cash probably has some good advice on getting ahead, listen to your agent and record execs, up to a point, anyway. Surround yourself with other musicians, go to their gigs and see if they want to play on your album, it never hurts to ask.
Then, after a couple of hit records, like "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", it's time for the next phase, what we now call being a "disruptor". The film takes us from Dylan's NYC arrival in 1961 to the infamous Newport Folk Festival concert, where he "went electric" and played with amplified instruments, something that had been a no-no at that event, since it apparently wasn't the way God intended folk music to sound. But Dylan was turning into more of a rock musician anyway, and electricity had been around for a while. It's a really weird distinction, I mean, the folk musicians used microphones that ran on electricity, what's the big deal? But this is when he notably got booed off the stage and only played three songs before leaving, as people were throwing stuff at the stage. But interpretations of the crowd reaction have differed over the years, some people say the sound system was just BAD, and people were booing that. Or they were booing the fact that Dylan played a short set, so maybe it's tough to say. Anyway, it appears to all be Johnny Cash's fault, because he advised Dylan to "track mud on the carpet", metaphorically meaning to mess things up, so he did.
Dylan messed up his relationships, too - he had a thing going with a steady girlfriend, the one who appeared on the "Freewheelin'" album cover with him, they changed her name for the movie. But singing with Joan Baez, touring with Joan Baez, harmonizing with Joan Baez, well, naturally something was due to happen there. This all comes to a head during the same Newport Folk Festival, Dylan had invited "Sylvie" there to reconcile with her, but then she had to watch him sing "It Ain't Me Babe" with Baez, and she either realized that Bob and Joan were a couple, or that she would never feel right knowing they were on tour together, or that Bob would never be exclusive with her - either way, the relationship was essentially over due to Dylan's infidelity. Whether his break-up with Sylvie influenced his attitude and made him take that out on the Newport crowd, that's open to interpretation.
Young Dylan learns that he can't have it both ways, he can't have the steady girlfriend AND the affair. He can't have stardom AND artistic freedom. He can't be a folk icon AND play rock music. Maybe he's an entitled musical genius, or maybe he's just like everyone else, he wants what he has already and JUST a bit more. But what's clear is that at this point in his life, he didn't want to be tied down, he didn't want the record company or the fans to define him, and he didn't want to be held back artistically. The "artist brain" demands that musicians always be moving forward, writing new material, thinking about new ways songs can be performed, and that was Dylan to a "T". I remember in the Tom Petty documentary the Heartbreakers talked about being Dylan's backing band on tour, and they had to be ready to perform any Dylan song in any style or at any speed that Dylan called for.
And you can't really say Dylan was wrong, because the career has lasted for almost 70 years, with 125 million records sold, at least three Greatest Hits albums, 40 studio albums, 104 singles, a Christmas album (somehow) and even the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, which he notably did not show up to claim. That's OK, it's the thought that counts. The performance by Chalamet was amazing, he really nailed the cadence of Dylan's singing and he really played guitar and harmonica in Bob's style. My favorite parts might have been the re-enactments of the recordings sessions for "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues", but then, I'll watch any documentary about sound studios or how songs came together during the recording process. There doesn't seem to be any lip-synching here, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro and Boyd Holbrook all did their own singing, and it can't be easy to sing like Joan Baez.
We're coming up on the 60th anniversary of the festival where Dylan "went electric", which was July 24, 1965. There really couldn't be a better time to watch this film, if you want to celebrate the occasion. Over the course of the film, other notable events are mentioned, like the Bay of Pigs invasion and the JFK assassination, but musically, that folk festival is the important one. This film got 8 Oscar nominations, but didn't win any, which is a damn shame. I sincerely doubt that I'll find "Anora" to be more deserving of winning Best Picture when I finally watch that.
Directed by James Mangold (director of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny")
Also starring Timothee Chalamet (last seen in "Men, Women & Children"), Edward Norton (last seen in "Asteroid City"), Monica Barbaro (last seen in "Top Gun: Maverick"), Boyd Holbrook (last seen in "The Bikeriders"), Dan Fogler (last heard in "Free Birds"), Norbert Leo Butz (last seen in "Better Living Through Chemistry"), Eriko Hatsune, Big Bill Morganfield, Will Harrison, Scoot McNairy (last seen in "C'mon C'mon"), P.J. Byrne (last seen in "Somewhere in Queens"), Michael Chernus (last seen in "People Places Things"), Charlie Tahan (last seen in "Poms"), Eli Brown, Nick Pupo, Laura Kariuki, Stephen Carter Carlsen, Eric Berryman (last seen in "Barry"), David Alan Basche (last seen in "United 93"), Joe Tippett, James Austin Johnson (last heard in "Inside Out 2"), Kayli Carter (last seen in "Charlie Says"), Alaina Surgener, Will Price, Joshua Henry (last seen in "Tick, Tick...Boom!"), Molly Jobe, Peter Gray Lewis (last seen in "Motherless Brooklyn"), Peter Gerety (last seen in "Stop-Loss"), David Wenzel (last seen in "On the Rocks"), Riley Hashimoto, Eloise Peyrot, Maya Feldman, Reza Salazar, Craig Geraghty (last seen in "The Many Saints of Newark"), Michael Everett Johnson, Andy Talen, Zoe Zien, Arthur Langlie, Jordan Goodsell, Liam Craig (last seen in "Random Hearts"), Ian Kagey, Dave Maulbeck, Lorin Doctor, Steve Bell, Malcolm Gold, Patrick Phalen, Douglas Marriner, Justin Levine, Mark Whitfield Jr., Joshua Crumbley, Felix Lemerle, Malick Koly, Andre Chez Lewis, Jimmy Caltrider, Sunny Jain, James Archie Worley (last seen in "The Other Guys"), Elliot S. Nesterman, Sarah Swift,
with archive footage of Bette Davis (last seen in "Mike Wallace Is Here"), Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Fly Me to the Moon"), John F. Kennedy (last seen in "Nyad"), Paul Henreid (last seen in "Now, Voyager").
RATING: 8 out of 10 scrapbook photos from Minnesota
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