Artistic Freedom

My cousin and I planned to go see A Complete Unknown at a theater in Santa Monica next to the Elephant restaurant where we ended up having espresso martini afterwards, and discuss the movie. It's on DVD already, but we wanted to support the disappearing movie theaters. If you are a creative, such as a musician. a writer, an actor, an artist, or ..., you should see this movie. It is difficult for artists to thrive unless they succumb to what is expected. This pressure on artists oftentimes kills their creativity. (image by KoolShooters)

Speaking from a writer's perspective, we are squeezed to fit a mold, and any departure from that mold renders us untalented—such as "show, don't tell," or "your book must belong to a genre or it will not succeed," and so on and so forth. Writers who are different are not accepted by the elitists, the literary society, and the mainstream editors. The critics, reviewers, and readers jump all over the writer if their work does not fit in the status quo. And this is no different in the music industry. (image by Mohamed_hassan)

Bob Dylan, portrayed by the actor Timothée Chalamet, is a young hungry musician, who at the beginning of his career, does as he is told to make a name for himself. Even so, he is direct, and has no problem telling people off when they're in the wrong. As he gains fame, he realizes that being famous isn't all that it's cut out to be, and the strain of fans following him everywhere, touching him, and never giving him a moment of peace starts to wear him down. He keeps going back to his ex, Suze Rotolo, portrayed by the actress Elle Fanning, because he feels at home when he is with her. (image by Porapak Apichodilok)

When he cheats on Rotolo with Joan Baez, she leaves him. Dylan is attracted to Joan because of her beauty, talent and fame and because they are both musicians. However, Joan Baez has a different vision for the two of them, a vision that later Dylan realizes they do not share. She wants him to continue in the same path, and he wants to do something different. He wants to write new songs and play his electric guitar which gives off sounds that people living during that time period were not familiar with and did not enjoy. It ends up with the sponsors, the crowd, and Joan hating him for wanting to vary his path. (image by Yabee Eusebio)

The next day, I was talking to someone about this who said, well, he was getting paid for his work, and there were certain expectations from him. And I get this. It is a business, the sponsors want to make money, and the audience wants to get their money's worth. But here is the thing, some people embrace fame and do as they're told. Others, like Bob Dylan, think that they want fame, but once they get it, they realize that it isn't all that it's cut out to be. Bob Dylan wanted to express his creativity and not be defined by other people's desires. What was interesting was that after everything blew over, Dylan went on to do amazing work, and his electric guitar music, and his songs captivated the hearts of audiences everywhere. The sad part was that he lost his girl because she couldn't compete with the likes of Joan Baez, and his fans. Suze knew that she would always take back stage in his life, and left him. (image by Alena Darme)

This movie brought back so many memories. My brother, and our two childhood friends used to play Bob Dylan and Joan Baez songs all the time. And some of the musicians portrayed by the actors in the movie are so familiar that I felt as though I had stepped back in time to when I was thirteen. Dylan and Baez were from a different generation, but we all enjoyed listening to their records. Yes, records and not sound tracks, CDs, and downloads. (image by Elviss Railijs Bitāns)

I highly recommend this movie, especially if you are a creative, or are familiar with their music. And although this movie has been out for quite some time, if you are able to, see it at the movie theater, because sometimes you run into the strangest people, and have a good laugh. My cousin and I were seated towards the back, and this lady seated five rows down yelled at us for speaking too loudly. Mind you, the movie had not started. There were not even commercials on the screen. My cousin and I are generally not loud people. My cousin bickered with the lady, and then turned to me, and said, this isn't a spa, which made me laugh. Later when the movie came on, the same lady was singing along with the musicians on the screen. And I almost went up to her to say, "Hey, be quiet. I want to listen to their singing and not to yours." So, there you have it. The joy of attending public venues. (image by Nadin Sh)