Post by klep on Oct 24, 2016 6:59:20 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/24: I'm Not There
We look at our cultural icons and we want to know them. We want to get what makes them tick, and we want to understand what they're trying to tell us through their work. If their work is inscrutable or opaque, or if they try to avoid revealing much of themselves, it only makes us want to know them the more.
Bob Dylan is one such figure. He's a man who took up a new identity to tell us stories and sing us songs that spoke to us on a deep level. The quality and influence of his work are such that he was recently awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he's already had multiple documentaries made about him. But he still retains some air of mystery, of unknowability, that can be frustrating to both those who like him and those who don't.
In I'm Not There, Todd Haynes interrogates the inner workings of Dylan by breaking him into parts. We see half a dozen guises of Dylan, from a fresh-faced child eager to share music and stories, to a womanizing asshole, to a jaded and strung out artist frustrated by a world that won't leave him alone. Using different actors to play each part we explore these separate and seemingly contradictory parts of Dylan and see if they reveal anything about the whole.
But the fact is that all of us are made up of many facets; we all contain multitudes and we're often self-contradictory, complicated beings. Dylan may be more talented, but he's fundamentally no different than any of us. Ultimately we learn that Dylan is just a man, looking for connection, looking to tell stories, and looking for himself.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for Halloween: Hausu
Join us next week on Halloween as we discuss this macabre, surreal, and just deeply weird film about a carnivorous house. Hausu is available for rent from Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/20: Westworld (2016)
This Wednesday we'll have a thread to talk about part two of the latest Next Picture Show Podcast, on HBO's new Westworld series; what it draws from the original film and where it goes beyond it. Westworld can be watched on HBO Go and HBO Now.
We look at our cultural icons and we want to know them. We want to get what makes them tick, and we want to understand what they're trying to tell us through their work. If their work is inscrutable or opaque, or if they try to avoid revealing much of themselves, it only makes us want to know them the more.
Bob Dylan is one such figure. He's a man who took up a new identity to tell us stories and sing us songs that spoke to us on a deep level. The quality and influence of his work are such that he was recently awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he's already had multiple documentaries made about him. But he still retains some air of mystery, of unknowability, that can be frustrating to both those who like him and those who don't.
In I'm Not There, Todd Haynes interrogates the inner workings of Dylan by breaking him into parts. We see half a dozen guises of Dylan, from a fresh-faced child eager to share music and stories, to a womanizing asshole, to a jaded and strung out artist frustrated by a world that won't leave him alone. Using different actors to play each part we explore these separate and seemingly contradictory parts of Dylan and see if they reveal anything about the whole.
But the fact is that all of us are made up of many facets; we all contain multitudes and we're often self-contradictory, complicated beings. Dylan may be more talented, but he's fundamentally no different than any of us. Ultimately we learn that Dylan is just a man, looking for connection, looking to tell stories, and looking for himself.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for Halloween: Hausu
Join us next week on Halloween as we discuss this macabre, surreal, and just deeply weird film about a carnivorous house. Hausu is available for rent from Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/20: Westworld (2016)
This Wednesday we'll have a thread to talk about part two of the latest Next Picture Show Podcast, on HBO's new Westworld series; what it draws from the original film and where it goes beyond it. Westworld can be watched on HBO Go and HBO Now.