The Morning: The enigma of Bob Dylan

Plus, al-Assad's secret escape, pharmacy deserts and airplane movies.

View in browser|nytimes.com December 22, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Alissa Wilkinson writes about the new Bob Dylan film. We're also covering al-Assad's secret escape, pharmacy deserts and airplane movies. —David Leonhardt Bob Dylan  Bettmann Bob Dylan, revisited By Alissa Wilkinson I'm a film critic. My holiday season has been filled with parties, and as a movie critic, that has meant a lot of conversations about the big upcoming movie. This year there's a clear winner, at least at the events I've been attending. Someone sidles up to me, Negroni or Coke in hand, and asks, sotto voce, Have you seen the Bob Dylan movie? And then the follow-up: So is it any good? Yes, I have seen "A Complete Unknown," about Dylan's early years. And yes, though critical opinion has so far been somewhat divided, I quite liked it, as I mentioned in my recent essay on this year's big crop of movies set in New York. It looks great and plays slyly with some rocker biopic conventions. Plus, Timothée Chalamet makes a great Dylan, and Edward Norton is fantastic as Pete Seeger. The movie also prompted me to think more broadly about Bob Dylan onscreen. In fact, I spent the better part of the last two months watching every movie he appears in, and a few in which other people play him. Quality varies widely, and midway through I flirted with regret; there's a long stretch from the late 1980s to the early 2000s where they're outright abysmal. (If you want to be reminded of how bad a movie can be, try 2003's "Masked and Anonymous.") But it was fascinating to watch him, and the film industry, evolve. "Dont Look Back," the documentary by D.A. Pennebaker shot during Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England, is a bona fide landmark in American cinema, preserved in the Library of Congress. After that documentary, and some others, Dylan tried out acting and directing himself (with mostly unfortunate results). In recent years, filmmakers like Todd Haynes, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers have come at Dylan from other directions, all trying to capture a singer who never stays in one shape for very long. (Haynes's 2007 film "I'm Not There," for instance, uses six different actors to play versions of the singer, including Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale.) Throughout these 15 films, I found myself wondering: Why has Dylan proved so fascinating and, at times, elusive to filmmakers — even when the filmmaker is himself? That's more or less what "A Complete Unknown" is exploring. Its title is a nod to the film's thesis, one my Dylan binge bore out: He has spent his career purposely making himself unknowable. He appeared out of nowhere, told tall tales and messed with journalists, and radically shifted his musical style just as people were ready to anoint him king of folk music. He is, in other words, the consummate postmodern celebrity: lauded for authenticity but also seemingly totally unconcerned with it. I'm nowhere near as immersed in Dylanalia as some of my colleagues are, but I think this ability to try on a new identity — something the movie shows him defending — is probably what's made him endure for so long. With Dylan, you never quite know what you're getting, and he is in on the trick. I don't know if "A Complete Unknown" will ignite interest in Dylan among a new generation who turn out for Chalamet. But I'm certain that if it does, they'll still have to try to figure him out. THE LATEST NEWS International A defaced banner in Syria. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times Bashar al-Assad fled Syria secretively, under the cover of night and a fake political address. Read about the final days of his regime. 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But Trump and Elon Musk will bring change randomly and without reason, Katherine Miller argues. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on religious trends, and Nicholas Kristof discussing the virgin birth in Christianity. Ends soon: Our best rate on unlimited access for Morning readers. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Clockwise from top left: Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Gena Rowlands and Willie Mays.  CBS, via Getty Images, Lawrence Schiller, Julian Wasser/TV Guide, via Everett Collection, Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Shutterstock The Lives They Lived: Memorializing of some of the artists, innovators and thinkers who died this past year. Christmas Adam: This celebration has hazy origins and is celebrated on Dec. 23 because "Adam came before Eve." At 35,000 feet: Read how airlines pick the movies on your flights. 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No. I recognize that none of this is about me. When people react the way they do, and yell out "Jesus!" they're seeing me as the face of the guy that they've had this response to while experiencing the show. Psychologically they know I'm not Jesus, but they want me to be the next best thing. I, of course, cannot go anywhere near that reality. But you also feel as if you've been put here for a reason. Yes, there's a sense of mission, but the mission is about Jesus. So I'm playing this character that people, for the most part, already love. They have a relationship with him. Then I come in and I sort of fulfill their idea of who that person is. I'm also one of them, in that I have a relationship. A lot of fans know how I feel about Jesus and God and faith. If I believe in divine destiny, it's that I was meant to play this character at this time and place in history. Let me ask a seasonally appropriate question. Do you have feelings about how secular Christmas has become? It's hard to sort of see it being hijacked. I remember as a kid seeing these signs around churches: Keep Christ in Christmas. Especially now, any movie that comes out during the season that's about Christmas, there's no trace of Jesus in it at all. So it's unfortunate. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE The New York Times Magazine Click the cover image above to read this week's magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Go skiing in Europe. (It might be cheaper.) Make a long flight more restful. Protect your privacy with a browser extension. Keep your child safe online. MEAL PLAN Nico Schinco for The New York Times In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein suggests recipes at the intersection of easy and fancy, including lemony roast chicken with potatoes, garnished with chopped dill and feta; and slow-roasted salmon with salsa verde. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangrams were cofounded and confounded. Can you put eight historical events — including George Washington crossing the Delaware, the first fireworks, and the development of the chocolate chip cookie — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. 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