Bob Dylan’s Call to Freedom – Titus Techera

Bob Dylan is America ’s “definitive post-war artist” says Julian Zelizer .

New James Mangold movie, A Complete Unknown , stars Timothée Chalamet as the young Dylan in the first part of his career.

Zelizer : Dylan 's fame seems a rebuke to the national love of California , that terrestrial paradise where American history can be forgotten.

He says Dylan was the natural artistic representative for a democracy dedicated to learning, perhaps universal access to higher education.

The film is a classic bildungsroman, so it’s not enough to speak about artists in society—it makes us inquire into their private lives.

Dylan 's mission is far more selfish than moralistic, but it is useful and reliable for that reason.

Movie has a much greater purpose than a pretty retelling of Dylan 's early career.

We get mediocrity instead; audiences didn’t make it a popular movie, either.

Chalamet has been applauded for his imitation of Dylan , perhaps too enthusiastically.

I think he ruined Dune and he has succeeded with Dylan , either, because his talent is too tied up with the decay of cinema.