A Complete Unknown: Movie Review

"You can be beautiful or you can be ugly, but you can't be plain."

The best biopics give you a real feel for that person, for their impact. I consider this movie a success because that's what it did for me.

A Complete Unknown begins with nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan arriving in Greenwich Village in 1961, and ends after a pivotal concert at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Nothing about what came after. Nothing about his childhood or youth. Bob Dylan is still with us; he's 83, has been married twice, has six children, and has written a staggering number of songs. He even won a Nobel prize for literature. I thought at first that maybe they'd made a mistake, focusing on just those four years. I have since changed my mind.

This movie wrenched an emotional response from me in just the first few minutes – with folk singer Pete Seeger singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" outside of the courtroom where Seeger had been convicted of contempt of Congress, followed by Dylan and Seeger visiting a dying Woody Guthrie in the hospital. Yes, the movie is entirely centered on Dylan, but it stumbles from one famous person to another – Guthrie and Seeger, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash – all of whom were outclassed by Dylan in one way or another.

Edward Norton gives an excellent spot-on performance as folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, an artist who stayed the same while Dylan changed. (Norton is so good that I didn't realize it was him at first.) Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) is sympathetic as Dylan's live-in girlfriend.

But Monica Barbaro is the stand-out as singer Joan Baez, who was already famous when she met Dylan. Baez recognized his genius immediately and used it for her own benefit, covering some of his famous early songs. The scene where Dylan and Baez woke up in bed together, he sang the song he was writing ("Blowin' in the Wind") and she spontaneously harmonized, actually gave me chills.

Timothée Chalamet is just outstanding as Dylan. He doesn't look much like him, but he somehow captured Dylan's essence with his voice and mannerisms and the aid of Dylan's off-center voice and "either I haven't combed my hair in two years or I want it to appear that way" hairdo. I found it so interesting that Dylan described himself as a freak and kept telling people he had worked at a carnival. At one point, Baez says, "You know, you're kind of an asshole, Bob," and by the end of the movie, I agreed. Bob Dylan is indeed something of a jerk. He's constantly immersed in his own inner dialogue. He's one of those people that justifies hurting others by claiming he's just telling the truth.

But Dylan is also brilliant, a bona fide genius, a once-in-a-lifetime talent. This movie focuses on Dylan's lyrics, but it didn't just give us an overdose of one famous song after another. Dylan's words reflect what he was thinking and feeling while he was coping with the jarring, uncomfortable experience (for him) of becoming famous during an historical period of great volatility – the Cuban missile crisis, the Civil Rights movement, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X. His times really were a-changing. A hard rain really did fall.

It's clear that Dylan was, and probably still is, compelled to write songs, that this is who he is. I came out of this movie immersed in Bob Dylan's words. They're moving, powerful and memorable. Apparently, this movie isn't an accurate depiction of what happened, but I don't think I care. I liked A Complete Unknown even better the second time I saw it, and I'm certain I'll watch it again.

Bits and quotes:

I first saw this movie at home with close captioning and am glad I did. I would have found it frustrating to miss any of the dialogue and lyrics.

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) wrote fan letters to each other and became pen pals before meeting in person. I thought that was delightful.

Joan Baez' most famous song, "Diamonds and Rust," was written about her relationship with Bob Dylan. Fascinating lyrics, and what an incredible voice she has. (The link is to the song on YouTube.)

The title of this movie is from Dylan's song, "Like a Rolling Stone."

I have a personal Bob Dylan story. My cousin Tracie was a huge lifelong fan of his. In 1990, we went to see him in concert at Penn State. Dylan did not sing a single song that I recognized, and I was disappointed. Tracie was just happy to see him in person and didn't mind. It makes sense that he refuses to sing his old songs, which is also mentioned in this movie. For Dylan, it's about what is happening in his head now.

Sylvie: "Who do you wanna be?"
Dylan: "A musician. Who eats."

Dylan: "Everyone asks where these songs come from, Sylvie. But then you watch their faces, and they're not asking where the songs come from. They're asking why the songs didn't come to them."

Dylan: (in a letter to Johnny Cash) "Dear Johnny, Thanks for that letter. I am now famous – famous by the rules of public famiosity. It snuck up on me and pulverized me. To quote Mr. Freud, I get quite paranoid."

Bobby Neuwirth: "Y'know, I'm not a horse, so I don't like carrying other people's weight."
Dylan: "Yeah, well, I got a hundred pounds on me that don't show on the scale."
Bobby Neuwirth: "How do you sing, then?"
Dylan: "I put myself in another place. But I'm a stranger there."

I enjoyed every scene in this movie. Four out of four harmonicas,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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