Few pop culture legends are better at not giving a shit about things he doesn't give a shit about than Bob Dylan. There might have been a time, earlier in his career, when Dylan's disinterest in any number of topics might have come off as rude, or maybe even performative. But the man has now well-and-truly aged into the sort of sublime, cheerful indifference to shit he doesn't care about that younger men can only aspire to hold. Take, for instance, Dylan's brief assessment of James Mangold's upcoming movie about him, A Complete Unknown, which he approaches (via social media) with the same energy that a normal person might bring to hearing that the circus is in town. (That is, polite interest, along with a strong inclination to never actually go see it.)
"There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!)," Dylan's Twitter account opined this week. "Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me." Which, as far as ringing endorsements go, walks a fine line between outright talking shit, and being nice while not committing to ever having to actually sit down with this thing. (Still, we hope it will come as some consolation to Chalamet, who's previously expressed worries that Dylan thinks the movie "must be a piece of shit."
In fact, it feels like Dylan mostly acknowledges Chalamet, and the film, so he could talk about books, instead: The singer/songwriter/Nobel laureate ended his post by noting that "The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book."
A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on Christmas Day, 2024; do not go looking for Bob Dylan at your local screening, because we're pretty damn sure he won't be there.
