"Unknown" is a rare Hollywood movie that triggers people's reflection. There's an exciting conversation happening everywhere, whether it's on social media, in the mainstream media, or among the many people who have seen the film - a collective meditation/investigation into Bob Dylan Who, who and what he is. What it meant then and what it means now. Strikingly, there's little of the Dylan nostalgia in it - the tearful boomer eyes of self-righteousness about "their" beloved idol. That would be lame if that were the case. (No one hated it more than Dylan.)

Dylan's talk is very present tense, vivid, and very exploratory. It's about the movie, but it's more than the movie. It's about everyone who's seen "Total Unknown," or everyone who grew up with Dylan, revisiting the question: What was Is it about him? What is his magic, what power does he have over us?

The reason we're still confused about this question is because the answer remains mysterious. If you talk about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones (who along with Dylan formed the holy trio of 60s music gods that changed everything), their majesty was limitless, but we all felt it in palpable ways. meaning. All the Beatles did was recolor the DNA of the world. We hardly need to explain them. For decades, the Rolling Stones have been called "the greatest rock band in the world," and that's the truth.

But from the moment Bob Dylan came out in 1961, he was slapped with countless labels—protest singer, “going electric” folk musician—that somehow failed to describe him and his place in the universe. This is not to say that the labels are inaccurate. He really started out as a protest singer. He did go electric, and it was a game-changing, world-changing moment. But none of this describes, in a strange way, Dylan's transcendence. What I love about "Unknown" - a film that I think is almost underrated in a way - is that it makes Dylan's magic go far beyond those pesky labels. This shows how beautiful he is beyond words.

Many people have noticed that Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) is a deliberately mysterious and obscure figure who always speaks with casual aphorisms and obscure narrations. He wasn't going to let the so-called conversation hold him back. When Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) becomes romantically involved with him, she says, "Bob, you're such an asshole." That's the dimension she's referring to in him—except competitively In addition to firing her, he would make up things about his past (like that he joined a circus) and refuse to admit it, not even allowing his lover to determine who he was. In "Total Unknown," we see Dylan as the original too-cool-for-school indie-rock asshole. You'd better believe Lou Reed - the most notorious asshole in rock history - inherited this attitude from Dylan, along with the essence of Dylan's swinging rap style.

Yet if Chalamet's Dylan is simply a hooded figure hiding his thoughts, everything he does seems to be for effect. yes he yes A bit of a jerk, but what makes up for it is that he's more than just a dwarf enigma to those around him. He is also a mystery to him himself —an artist who conveys what is going on around him without really trying to explain it, even arrive himself. That would clear up the mystery. When Bob talks about what Woody Guthrie meant to him in the movie, the point is that Guthrie's folk music touched this kid from Minnesota in ways that words and explanations don't allow. What he heard and drew from the music was primal: not "protest," but something richer, deeper, more timeless. Faith template.

It has to do with the way we experience Dylan's songs in the film: as emanations of a spirit that make him not just a great singer-songwriter, but a strengththe cosmic messenger. the message of his music yes Belief. That's why his urge to go electric was something the folk band, led by Pete Seeger, couldn't understand. It’s not just that they prefer acoustic instruments. They believe in the idea of ​​fighting for social justice. Dylan did…and didn’t. He believed in something more personal and ineffable: that a song has the power to guide us into a state of reverence that transports you to heaven.

One of the reasons I'm moved by the Dylan reckoning happening now is that it reflects my own journey with Dylan. For years, my knowledge and understanding of him prevented me from truly listening to him. I grew up in the 70s and owned many of his records and listened to them dutifully, but somehow I always felt like I was missing something. In short, I couldn't understand most of the lyrics, which made me feel like a C student in Dylanology. What did those gushing words do? means? I realized the "protest singer" label was one he had shed after a few years. But what he never grew up with was how baby boomers revered him as a "poet." I've never cared much for poetry; it doesn't speak to me. I feel like most of Dylan’s poetry is floating through my head.

It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I started to really listen to Dylan and face his great paradox: his lyrics weren’t that important a lot of the time. I mean, they do and they don't. My favorite Dylan album is Blood on the Tracks, and there were many days when I thought Dylan's greatest song was "Tangled Up in Blue." I've listened to it 1,000 times. But I can't understand 90% of the lyrics. The song may reflect the journey from innocence to counterculture to the world beyond it, charting the course of his marriage to Sara Lownds, but it's not about any of that, either. this song is about Feel It's seeing the life you've lived come into view even as it recedes like a lost highway. It's evident in the sound.

As I get older, I understand even more that Bob Dylan’s genius lies in his voice. His lilting voice on "Knocking on Heaven's Door." The ecstasy of the harmonica solo in "Absolutely Sweet Mary." He doesn't just sing a lyric - he seesaws it, hisses it, caresses it, and deposits it directly into your soul, even if you don't know what it means. When he went electric, he created a sound unique in rock history, both sweet and furious. He inspires you not like Woody Guthrie, but like JS Bach. No matter the subject, Dylan was singing religious music. A heavy rain is coming, but the miracle is that Dylan captures that rain and makes it beautiful for what it is.

Music is sound, and what Timothée Chalamet captures in his extraordinary impersonation of Dylan is how Dylan used his voice, the shimmering percussive majesty of his guitar playing and the mystery of his words to express himself. Touching the incredible, in song after song, carving out a special five-minute space in the universe and inviting us to pour our emotions into this space. "Unknown" isn't the greatest rock biopic (it should be "Sid and Nancy"), but it brings something unique to the world of rock biopics. It illuminates the sacred space that Dylan created, allowing you to see it, hear it, touch it and live in it until you realize this is electrified life.