Eight Oscar nominations suggest this film is a juggernaut. It kind of is—but only if you’re a fan of Bob Dylan’s music and of the village folk scene in the 1960s. The story follows a young Bobby Zimmerman’s rise from Midwestern Woodie Guthrie fanboy to the headliner at the Newport Folk Festival. The facts of young Bobby’s life aren’t all that interesting (possibly because he refuses to talk about himself), and, as Joan Baez says to him, he’s “kind of an asshole” throughout the film.
Perhaps because of the lack of gripping source material, director James Mangold gives us more music than story—a long string of Dylan’s greatest early hits, all capably sung by Timothee Chalamet. Fans of Dylan will love this. Fans of the era will delight in the portrayals of Baez, Pete Seeger and others. Non-fans might decide Mangold gives us 140 minutes of painting lipstick on a pig. I belong to the former group. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.