Bobferatu Part 1: A Complete Unknown

Get messy. Be Yourself.

This is the weekend I yearned for and the one I needed. A weekend to see a couple of movies and write about them. You guys have no clue how many ideas I get for this little writing hobby that fill me with excitement, but they get put on the shelf of ideas for later. I finally have the opportunity to exercise one of my ideas: Bobferatu. Yes, my dumb attempt of a personal Barbenheimer experience. Remember Barbenheimer? What a moment in pop culture history: the world united to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer, a duo of amazing cinematic experiences. Tonight is the first half of Bobferatu: the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. Tomorrow, you will be getting my thoughts on the re-make of the horror movie classic, Nosferatu. Without further ado, let’s spend time with one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all-time, played by one of the biggest movie starts of the 21st Century…

My Relationship With Bob Dylan

YouGov did a study awhile back that found that the ages of 13-16 tend to be the most formative years for an individual’s music tastes. People tend to think that the era of music from their teenage years was the best in the history of music. The graph below shows this:

So, as a Millennial who graduated high school in 2008, I would fall in that 2000s decade range…American Idiot-Era Green Day, The Killers, Bright Eyes, and Eminem just to name a few. Despite loving all of those artists, I actually somewhat buck the trend. I grew up with the music of older generations and have a solid appreciation for the artists of the 1960s through 1990s. That’s not to say one era is better than the other, but Bruce Springsteen is basically a spiritual leader in my life so take that for what it’s worth.

Okay, Bob Dylan. I have a deep love and respect for Bob Dylan. I’ve held him in a high regard for almost two decades now. Getting an iPod when I was in high school opened up the doors of exposure to so many amazing artists…but initially in 99 cent single songs. The two songs that I remember purchasing with that iTunes account were “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Like a Rolling Stone”. Eventually, a Greatest Hits album joined the library and my appreciation expanded. “Mr. Tambourine Man” was one of the many songs I loved, until I soured on Bob for a bit…

Bob Dylan performed in my hometown in 2007, right smack dab in those formative years. Elvis Costello opened the show, which my dad was stoked about. I had fun during Costello as well, but I was just waiting for Bob to get on stage. I don’t want to disrespect Bob Dylan at all. He was a different man and performer in 1965 than he was in 2007 and now in 2024. I’ll just say we left early. I was disappointed and Bob Dylan faded into the background of my relationship with music.

It would not be until I started collecting vinyl in my mid-20’s that I let Bob Dylan back into my life. Collecting music is a fascinating hobby. There’s something about holding that physical record in your hand. It becomes part of you in a way that listening to music digitally cannot. I am spinning a live Bob Dylan album as I type and I feel the lyrics, his unique voice, the harmonica, and the guitar in my soul. Never take for granted the power of music. We often get caught up in the chaos of the world and struggles of the everyday, but music exists to help us process and make sense of it all. There’s a spiritual connection that happens when we hear that tune or the powerful words that make up the greater lyric. Bob Dylan was one of the best at making that connection through music.

Timothee Chalamet

I joked before the movie: “About to spend two hours with Timothee Chalamet…and my wife…but mostly Timothee Chalament.” I have already waxed poetic about Timothay here and here and will most certainly do it again in the future. If there is a crown for the biggest movie star of the moment, he is currently wearing it. Chalamet crushes it as Bob Dylan. Every song he sang, he sounded like Bob. And yes, he sang all of the songs and did not lip sync. Just to make feel it in my bones, I closed my eyes for a portion of a performance. He sounded just like Bob Dylan. My wife, who listens to zero Bob Dylan, walked in a bit ago while the record was playing and she commented, “Wow, he really did sound like him.” There you have it. Timothee seems to be the early betting favorite for the Best Actor Oscar Award and I will be shocked if he doesn’t get it. Check that, we will riot if he doesn’t.

Track Some Mud on the Carpet

I don’t want to spoil the movie since it has been out for only a few days, but there is a theme from the film that really stuck with me. The third act focuses on the conflict between Dylan and the folk music industry as he tries to go electric. Here is a conversation that Bob Dylan has with Bobby Neuwirth on an elevator:

Dylan: “Two hundred people in that room and each one wants me to be somebody else, but they should just let me be.”

Neuwirth: “Let you be what?”

Dylan: “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.”

This one is for the rebels. The people that want to take other people’s expectations and throw them out the window. One of the worst feelings in the world is when you have to be fake to appease people that have the wrong ideas about you. You just want to be yourself, but they want you to fit into their nice box of expectations. The expectation for Dylan was that he would play this soft folk music, but the world changed and he wanted his music to respond to that change. Too much had happened for the music to remain nice. Johnny Cash acts as a mentor to Dylan at certain parts of the film. He tells the younger artist: “Track some mud on the carpet.” Get messy. Be yourself. Throw out other people’s expectations.

I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland a few years back. They have this quote from Frank Zappa on the wall: “Rock music was never written for, or performed for, conservative tastes.” Interpret that was you will whether it’s political or cultural or spiritual or moral or all of the above. Rock music was created to be messy. It was create for people to be themselves. It defies expectations.

Bob Dylan wanted to upset the establishment. We need more people that want to track some mud on the carpet and upset the establishment.