ktokuno

Bob Dylan's life is important because he is arguably the greatest songwriter America has ever produced. The slice of this life portrayed in "A Complete Unknown is important not only because of its study of his start in the music business, but for the culmination of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan was an icon of the recent revival of folk music in this country. That revival began in 1958 with such groups as the Kingston Trio and Joan Baez. It's rising popularity was in some ways attributable to the reaction against rock. Many people wanted America to return to its roots. Between Dylan's' songwriting and groups such as Peter, Paul and Mary and the New Christie Minstrels, folk music's revival had peaked in 1965. But many folk's fans held rock and its electric sounds in contempt. Dylan's effort to electrify folk music at eh 1965 Newport Festival was thus a critical statement in blending folk and rock in w ay that shaped music for decades. This film does an outstanding job of illustrating that tension and his shows impact.

The acting is first rate. All of the actors do an amazing job of replicating the original singers. There was no dubbing here. There is no way that any of them could provide an exact replica of Dylan, Baez, Johnny Cash or Peter Seeger, but their renditions all provided a credible exhibition of the originals' styles. Ed Norton as Pete Seeger nearly become Seeger. Both Timothee Chalamet and Monica Barbara as Joan Baez also show some nice guitar work that makes it clear that they are really playing.

My complaints are two and minor. The first half of the film is paced a bit too fast so it feels like something is being skipped over and left out. Second, there are too many shots of the actresses looking at Dylan with a gaze that is ambiguous in what it is supposed to convey. I was not sure what the director, James Mangold, was trying to show us with those frequent and extended shots.

While not perfect, this film meets one of my major criteria for quality: it is authentic in the way it depicts human behavior. As a Psychologist who has been strongly interested in heterosexual relationships, this is crucial to me. Such authenticity requires strong acting and I was pleasantly surprised by how well Meg Ryan, as Alice, acted in the role of an unlikable drunk. Andy Garcia, Michael, was merely credible, but the real joy was Tina Majorino who played the elder daughter, Jess. The supporting cast was also very good, which we would expect from the likes of Ellen Burstyn and Philip Seymour Hoffman, albeit on screen only briefly. I liked the way it showed how a man's failure to show vulnerability was almost the downfall of his marriage. That subtext could use a lot more airing for the sake of American men.

I thought the ending was a little too pat, but fitting given Alice's strong AA speech near the end. Plus I'm not one to begrudge happy endings. There were also some holes in the plot, which might have been due to a poor editing job. I still wonder why they didn't provide better hints of Michael's temper before he flared twice. Still, the arc of the story was solidly structured.