The Rolling Thunder Review - A Bob Dylan Story
- a Martin Scorsese film
TV-MA - 2 Hours 22 min
Netflix
[the Real Deal]
Genuine
Heartfelt
what it was really
all about
Archival footage never looked
this way
From a central vision
Marty did not stray
Joan and Bob and Joni too
joined the train
and made
ballyhoo
Narrated by itself
With a voice
Like Allen
the awkward guru
Flower children
pokin' holes in the night
drivin' hippie wagons
to Jimmy Carter's delight
Genuine
Heartfelt
what it was really
all about
Payin' homage
To the Natives
Turnin' defendant
Into Plaintiff
The eye of the Hurricane
Smilin' big now
Free from the big house
And the whisky-drinkin'
Injun
Holdin' up the flag
Against the wind
Finding love
Shootin' straight
Seeing hate
Dissipate
Trail end
Seems a disaster
In the mind of the
money master
But it was
Genuine
Heartfelt
what it was really
all about
- agitatus
(Incredible piece of modern historical film - nice capstone nod to the brightest side of the generation explosion and a rare look at what sublime intensity lived inside one poetic troubadour - make sure you see this)
Jim & Andy 2017
I viewed "Man on the Moon" after it came out, somewhere in 2000, and my word for it was simply "incredible". Then Jim Carrey took all of the documentary footage and sat on it for as long as...well most likely for as long as it took to no longer be entangled with Andy Kaufman. About 9 or 10 years it seems.
Jim Carrey is everyone. That's what he's settled on it seems after playing Andy Kaufman in this Hollywood doc. He concludes the film with the question, "What would happen if I just decided to be Jesus?"
He's referring to his own ability to house a real-life person, channel them if you say that, reproduce them if you want a dry description of the term, clone them if you like Millennial terminology. Egotistical if you take that at face value. I mean, who does he think he is anyway, Jesus? (that's humor ok)
There is true denial, fear, and confusion alongside resignation, peace, and seeming tranquility all at once in the persona of Jim Carrey after he exhausted himself on the role of the unique and stratospherically out-of-the-box Andy Kaufman. It's in his face, both of them. In the real-life and updated version of Carrey in this 1/4 tribute film, he is as frank and serious as he's ever been, dropping the giant smile, while at the same time not allowing his cheeks to sag. They are as uplifted as ever. Permanent laugh lines.
"MOTMoon" would have to be on record as his signature film, as Jim Carrey's biggest role ever, not because of box office ROI, but because of the life similarity, familiarity, and depth of the character that he physically embodied before, during, and long after the last take of Jim & Andy. To be fair to the "exhausted" part of it, he states convincingly in his interview, "I don't miss Andy". Not for lack of love, for the fact of having completely exhumed him and replaced him for a time.
But I got the sense, towards the end of this film especially, that while a relaxed Jim Carrey seems resigned (by what we can tell he's relaxed because he's wearing a fairly heavy outer jacket for the entire interview that becomes the narrative for this film), he shows a great deal of tension and stiffens the upper lip against the end of himself. Even the personality-swallowing Carrey (who could embody Jesus most likely of anyone) cannot hide his entire body language. But that's most likely because this is indeed him and not "acting" Carrey. Here he is in fact baring himself open, and in that he is relaxed. I simply mean that his conclusions about the nature of self and the universe...they are less than convincing.
While the attempted bravado of facing the "unknown" is fed by what he has stated is the abstract nature of the self in the here and now, all things being "placed on us", and therefore exonerating ourselves of responsibility for how it's turned out, or what our "choices" are (hence the tea cup analogy: "did the tea cup choose to be drunk or was it my thirst?" - then I had to ask myself, "Well, does the tea cup have volition, like we do?"), Carry leans far forward when trying to tell us that we all long for what lies beyond. The subtitle for the film is in fact "The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton". Now THAT is exactly like the comedian, the escapist, to have a serious title appended by an embellished and decorated facetious one. It is the hallmark of the lone ranger, the only child syndrome, the reclusive or exclusivity of narcissism and implosive indulgence, however you want to look at it... to put the vanilla icing of Comedy over our vegetables and meatloaf.
This is not to say it's a bad thing, something to shy away from, or deny. I've been doing it my whole life, so I should know. I echo this whole thing right down to the core, because it is also me we're talking about here, my own profile. I've just never written a check to myself for 10 million dollars, and I did not have a chance to put it in my father's pocket when he was buried. But neither can I blame Jim for his direction here. It's totally understandable, believable for where he's at and what he's been through (man if you can make it through the Hollywood wringer and still smile....), and unlike many of the words normally used about Jim Carrey, even by himself, "genuine". Tony Clifton said it on stage, "That smile, he's smiling all the time, that's fake!"
If this film passed you by....NO WAIT! ....if this film passed you by and you ALSO did not see "Man in the Moon", then rewind...........see "Man in the Moon" first, THEN check this one out. You will not get as much out of this Making-Of documentary if you don't see the real film first. You will however need to see MOTM on Prime as a rental or elsewhere, and Jim & Andy on Netflix. Here are the links:
Man on the Moon
Jim & Andy
- Agitatus
