Today I finally got around to seeing the Bob Dylan biographical movie A COMPLETE UNKNOWN and I thought it was a fine effort. I enjoyed it a lot. While I’m not ecstatic over the movie (though the musical performances occasionally moved me in that direction), I think it was better than most movies I’ve seen in a long time.
I thought Timothy Chalamet did an outstanding job portraying Bob Dylan. I pretty quickly bought into the idea that that was Dylan himself up there on the screen — Joan Baez too. Dylan came off as something of a jerk which I fully expected. His iconoclasm has never been much of a secret.  Monica Barbaro didn’t sound much like Joan Baez to me at first, but by the time she was singing at Newport, she was doing a fine impression of that impossibly beautiful voice.  Chalamet always sounded just a tad more…let’s say, normal, than Dylan ever did.
I think I most enjoyed pretending I was right there along with the audience hearing Bob Dylan perform his greatest songs in public for the first time. That must’ve been a thrill. Certainly made me happy even in my imagination. It’s a good movie. If you like Bob Dylan, you really have to see it.
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN