A Complete Unknown – 8

The music alone makes this one of the most enjoyable films of this or any year. Hardly five minutes go by without another song, and it’s usually a great song we know and love, and it’s integral to the story. The actors do the vocals themselves, which makes it all more real, and they are good, especially Monica Barbaro, who looks great and hits the high, silver notes that made Joan Baez. A “complete unknown,” Bob Dylan can be played many ways, as Todd Haynes has shown, and Timothee Chalamet’s version is as good as any. We don’t learn much of anything about Dylan–he writes compulsively, he’s insensitive/rude to others, he lives in a bubble–but we feel his music. When Bob and Joan duetted on “It Ain’t Me Babe,” I broke down. And then there is “Like A Rolling Stone.” The movie wasn’t perfect: it was histrionic too often, notably in the Allen Lomax character. But he didn’t sing. That was Bob. And Joan and Johnny and Pete. And they were great.