On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason), discussed Will Tavlin’s n+1 opus on Netflix and the rise—or maybe resurgence—of casual viewing as the primary mode of media engagement. Then they reviewed A Complete Unknown, James Mangold’s movie about Bob Dylan’s early years on the New York folk scene. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Friday for a bonus episode on recent representations of the 1960s on screens large and small. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
Great discussion on "A Complete Unknown." And as someone who also dug the n + 1 piece on Netflix, I also enjoyed that conversation and left with a lot to think about. I'm also reminded of my fondness for the Netflix original "See You Yesterday," a movie that is very much in my wheelhouse (smart science fiction! produced by Spike Lee! a cameo that made me cheer in the opening five minutes!), which I literally only knew existed because a friend of mine worked on it. (And which, I suspect, would be much more of a cult film had it been released by the likes of A24 or Neon.)
Funny, I never really watch Netflix anymore. I found it most boring and can never find anything interesting. And Pete Seeger is my brave hero.
You go to movies about singers or bands to listen to them sing the songs you know and like. Well put!
I’m glad that at least Sonny and Alyssa liked A Complete Unknown. It had been years since I’d seen a movie in the theatre and I liked it so much it left me feeling like I should start going to the movies more. I thought Chalamet and Fanning and Norton and all the other actors were fantastic, the music was great, and I found the story really compelling (I went in familiar with a lot of the music but not knowing any of the history.) Overall, it just made me happy, which is more than I can say for most of the big movies I’ve seen in the past few years.
I often think (in the last few years) that it could be time again for Folk Songs, I can hear it working it’s way into current music.
You’re not wrong. I loved the movie, and loved singing along.
If you hang around long enough to FEEL Dylan's 2012 "Long and Wasted Years," you'll have lived a life of earned raggedness.