What's the damn point of a biopic? Any of the damn things, not just this latest one.
It's sold as a biography. (Hence the "bio.")
But the story is contrived.
The impersonations are laughable. (Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas? You have to be kidding.)
And in the age of YouTube, even if I liked the musician (which is rare anywhere with these things), why see someone impersonating a musician, badly, when you can watch the real thing over and over again as many times as you like?!
Even (to cite examples contrived for the latest of these things) the actual (but pretty ordinary) 1964 Baez-Dylan performance at the Newport Folk Festival, or the actual (and much-mythologised) 1965 Newport Folk Festival a year later — when folkies allegedly boo the 'newly'-electric Dylan* (which is not at all how I hear it on my bootleg records, by the way, which don't use any fancy audio enhancement).
And if it is Bob Dylan you're after, that confirmed plagiarist, then there's already plenty of films of the actual Bob to watch made by genuine film-makers like D.A. Pennebaker, Martin Scorcese, and even Bob himself (though you really, really don't want to go there).
If there's one Bob film you do have to watch that truly captures lightning in a bottle (and also, incidentally, the real demise of the Baez-Dylan relationship) then it's Pennebaker's Don't Look Back.
The fly-on-the-wall Don't Look Back (a year before that 1965 Newport appearance) is the only one you really need.
Oh, but, the biopic's actor spent five years learning to play guitar just so he could copy Bob! Really? Bob spent years learning to really be Bob; why watch a piss-poor imitation when the real thing is so easily available?
Oh, but the screenwriters made a better story out of real life than it would have been otherwise! Ugh, you mean the life-story depicted isn't so much bio as it is fiction? Right.
Oh but, but ... But me no buts. Don't waste your time (or mine) on these things.
I look forward to the time when film-makers learn how to tell actual stories again, instead of comic-book action flicks or contrived pseudo-bios that are done better elsewhere.
* His Bobness had been 'electric' on record since his first single way back in 1962, and a whole side of an album earlier that same year.
5 comments:
Penn Jillette, Dylan superfan and writer of the liner notes for one of his Bobness’ box sets (ironically the Christian years one), vehemently disagrees! He was waxing lyrical about it on a recent episode of his podcast. I guess I’ll watch it and see which of you is right! 🤣🍻
Tend to agree with your post PC. After all most of us know the backstory of artists we enjoy, so most biopics are not of much interest. I enjoyed a biopic about Joan Jett a few years ago since I didn’t know much about her life story.
Why is Elton John still bankrolling documentaries and films about himself …that’s what I want to know:)
@Greig: He's clearly wrong. ;-).
But I didn't even know he had a podcast! What's it called?
@Rex: Mr Jillette aside, perhaps, I would have thought that if there's any value at all in the things, then it's only for the unconvinced/half-convinced/barely interested fan. Who only wants a night out and for whom one shitty film is as bad as any other. Perhaps like this one?
@Peter it's called "Penn's Sunday School" - been going for a very long time. Some great stuff there.
@Greig: Haha, of course it is. :-). Thanks.
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