Exhilarating was THC's reaction. THC hadn't planned to see A Complete Unknown when he first heard about it but was persuaded to take a chance after reading some reviews by people he respected. Glad he did so and is certain to see it again at some point.
Never saw Timothee Chalamet before. The kid is spot-on playing Dylan in all his mumbling, passive-aggressive glory and is very good performing the music. In fact, the staging of all the music scenes is done very well, including those of Joan Baez, played by the talented and charismatic Monica Barbaro, another actor new to THC.(1) Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a version of Dylan's early 60s girlfriend Suze Rutolo, is also outstanding.
All of the casting hits the mark. Edward Norton is a pitch-perfect Mr Rogers as folk singer Pete Seeger(2), Boyd Holbrook is hilarious as Johnny Cash, while Dan Fogler's Albert Grossman, and Scoot McNairy as the dying Woody Guthrie are also well done.
The movie recounts the beginning of Dylan's career, covering the period from 1961, when he arrives in New York City, becomes the star of the folk music revival period, and then goes electric in 1965, climaxing with his appearance at the Newport Folk Festival that year. THC recently wrote about the significance of the turn in Dylan's music in Dylan 15.
The film captures the marvel of Dylan's musical creative process (though the essence remains unknown) and stage presence, both acoustic and electric. The quality and quantity of his output is staggering. Dylan 15 focused on three albums from 1965 and 1966, but A Complete Unknown reminds one the avalanche of memorable original compositions on his three albums from 1963 and 1964. Here's a partial list (songs heard, at least in part, in A Complete Unknown, indicated with asterisk):
From his two 1965 albums we also hear Like A Rolling Stone, Maggie's Farm, Subterranean Homesick Blues, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes a Train To Cry, Highway 61 Revisited.
While conveying Dylan's musical genius the film is not a hagiography. At various times, Dylan is portrayed as snide, remote, elusive, egocentric, infuriating, and a fabulist. During the course of the movie, Baez calls Dylan an asshole and a jerk, both of which are accurate descriptions (though who knew that singing Blowin' In the Wind and Masters of War would serve as a chick magnet, at least where Baez was concerned!). He's also very funny. At the personal level all you see is Dylan's surface; what's inside remains enigmatic, as he has deliberately done throughout his life. Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, is the finest of any musician from the 60s and 70s, but a reader is often left wondering how much is invented by Dylan. He's been a careful curator of his myth for decades, while rejecting any attempt by others to define or control him, a characteristic accurately portrayed in the movie. This is not a traditional biopic where the main character's personality transforms over the course of the movie and he triumphs over all obstacles. Dylan's music changes, but his personality does not in A Complete Unknown.
The heart of the film is around what was seen by the leaders of the new folk revival of the late 50s and early 60s as Dylan's betrayal. He was seen as the figure who could transcend the mere folkie label and his move to electric was bitterly resented by some and indeed turned out to be a death blow to the folk revival. That theme puts a different spin on some of his folkie songs just before his transition to electric. In the context of the movie, these lyrics from The Times They Are A Changin' struck THC as a warning to those folkies who were resisting the oncoming wave of rock, though his audience heard them much differently at the time:
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don't criticize What you can't understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin' Please get out of the new one If you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'
As did this lyric from It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, which Dylan plays to close his '65 Newport Folk Festival set:
Well, strike another match Yeah, go start new, go start new 'Cause it's all over now, baby blue
Like all movies, A Complete Unknown plays around with facts and chronology. The sequence of the composition of Dylan's acoustic songs is rearranged, his relationship with Sylvie was over by the time of the '65 Newport Folk Festival, some other events portrayed didn't happen or, at least, didn't happen that way, and the fierceness of the resistance to Dylan's Newport performance is over-dramatized. The relationships with Baez and Sylvie play a significant part, but by early 1965 Dylan was involved with Sara Lownds who he was to marry that November. I assume Lownds is not in the movie because since their divorce in 1978, Lownds, with whom Dylan had four children, has remained silent on their marriage and Dylan, who commented on and approved the script, probably wanted to keep her out it.
Go see the film; like Dylan's autobiography it is a well-done and enjoyable mix of fact and myth.
Another towering figure, Bill James, gives some insight into Dylan here.
(1) Baez had a beautiful voice but I never cared for her singing because its lack of dynamics and declarative stridency made it sound like she was delivering a lecture.
(2) Imagine Mr Rogers, and, indeed, Seeger had a very sunny personality, as also being a Stalinist (as Seeger also was in real life).
