Reviewed by Byron Potau<\/p>\n
The worst thing a bad film can have is a redeeming quality, some little thing which prevents the film from slipping into oblivion never to be viewed again.\u00a0 For the first five minutes director Todd Haynes\u2019s Bob Dylan biopic in disguise seems like it might be an interesting idea.\u00a0 However, the viewer soon realizes this experiment is an atrocious failure, and so begins the viewer\u2019s suffering at the hands of this tedious film that meanders through lofty pretentiousness and sheer boredom.
\nThe film bounces back and forth in Dylan\u2019s life and semi relative moments in time which may have affected Dylan\u2019s life and art.\u00a0 The entity of Dylan is portrayed by six different actors trying to portray a Dylan like figure without portraying a Dylan like figure.\u00a0 One character, a young black kid named Woody Guthrie (Haynes gets no points for subtlety here), portrayed by actor Marcus Carl Franklin, who is riding the railway cars with the tramps is supposed to embody a young Dylan trying to find himself and encountering influences along the way that will affect his music later on.\u00a0 Another character, portrayed by the late Heath Ledger, is an actor who embodies Dylan at the time of his crumbling marriage.
\nIt is not long into the film that the viewer realizes there is but one hope; Cate Blanchett.\u00a0 Her performance gained a considerable amount of attention as well as an Oscar nomination, and is the only reason anyone could possibly have to continue to watch.\u00a0 The unfortunate thing is that she is truly spellbinding.\u00a0 Though her performance seems slightly inconsistent in a few brief moments she is able to tap into Dylan\u2019s persona with slight gestures, nuance, and an aloof, wry grin at the end of a cigarette.\u00a0 The film comes to life when she is on screen and bears no resemblance to the other sections of the film.\u00a0 It is unfortunate that this performance should be hidden in such a tragically awful film.\u00a0 It is doubtful most casual viewers will even get to her performance before turning off the film since it is hidden forty minutes deep.\u00a0 It is also of note to mention what a terrible oversight the Academy made by giving the Oscar to Tilda Swinton over Blanchett.\u00a0 All the rest of the film has to offer are just pretty images over Dylan songs, sometimes sung by him, and sometimes not.
\nI cannot in, good faith, recommend this film, but I recommend Blanchett\u2019s performance which is worth the rental, and I strongly advise utilizing your fast forward button to reach her scenes.\u00a0 Watching her in comparison to the rest of the film makes one wish a good portion of this film was not there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Byron Potau The worst thing a bad film can have is a redeeming quality, some little thing which prevents the film from slipping into oblivion never to be viewed again.\u00a0 For the first five minutes director Todd Haynes\u2019s Bob Dylan biopic in disguise seems like it might be an interesting idea.\u00a0 However, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}