A Complete Unknown

It’s crazy when you think about the kinds of musical heroes and songs that stay with and remain meaningful to us throughout decades of our lives. A buddy of mine and I were chatting it up with a beer tender this past weekend whose face lit up when a Waka Flocka Flame song came on over the speakers. She couldn’t help but dance and sing along because it reminded her of her eight-grade dance (yikes) and the first time she was ever exposed to grinding. Yes, middle school boys and girls were grinding on the dance floor.

And apparently, this experience was too much for her as it permanently scarred her and she hasn’t, in her words, “ground” since then. I tried to convince her that she was putting way too much thought into it and invited her to go grinding with me but, as it typically goes, I left the bar grinding with myself to the sounds of Fergilicious instead.

But this made me think about all the artists like Al Green, Tupac, Stevie Wonder, Outkast and the like who have stuck with and still mean so much to me today. And while I was thinking about the musicians who have been passed down from generation to generation in the Black community as important relics of our history, I found myself wondering why Bob Dylan has never made the cut. I mean, not even an honorable mention. Joni Mitchell gets some love and even Michael McDonald gets play here and there, but no Dylan.  

This man wrote incredible songs about equality and even played The March on Washington. Songs like Blowin’ in the Wind, The Ballad of Emmett Till, and Only a Pawn in their Game should at least get played every Black History Month out of respect for what the man did for the cause. He should be our music’s equivalent of the film industry’s “white savior”. Think Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon but without the selective love of certain “cafers” (Lethal Weapon 2 refence) and his obvious hate for Asians and gay people. Maybe we should find a Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey) for him to fight; someone call up Connor McGregor, he has just the right amount of racism in him to make this work!

Well, I decided to go support my fellow “brother” in the struggle and saw A Complete Unknown. Now, even though I do know some Dylan songs, I’m not the biggest fan. You cant really do much grinding, twerking, or even moshing to most or any of his music but I do have a great deal of respect for his songwriting. So, it did take me some time to actually go see this film. But after seeing Timothee Chalamet’s latest press run for a hopeful Oscar win, I thought I’d pop in.

The story introduces you to a young Dylan as he hitchhikes his way to make it to New York City. He’s on a journey to meet and introduce himself to Woodie Guthrie, a musical hero of his. Apparently, Guthrie has fallen ill and is permanently confined to a hospital in New Jersey to help keep him alive. When Dylan finally makes it there, he plays a song he wrote specifically for Guthrie and it blows Guthrie and his friend Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) away.

Pete decides to take Dylan under his wing and introduces him to the NYC folk scene which is on the brink of taking off thanks to the likes of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Baez plays right before Dylan one night and you could see the instant chemistry between the two of them. They both recognized the massive talent that was effortlessly flowing from one another. But, as it would have it, Bob meets Sylvie Russo after a performance at a church one day and they wind up shacking up together.

And from there the film follows Dylan’s meteoric rise to fame as he writes beautiful and impactful songs that perfectly sum up, not only how messed up the events of the time were, but also how people were feeling about them. The film takes you through the U.S. being on the brink of war with Russia and everyone in New York panicking as a result of it. They all thought they were about to be wiped off the face of the earth by a nuclear bomb after Kennedy’s distressful Presidential Address to the Nation. This was also the night Dylan and Baez first hooked up mainly because they both thought they were about to die and Dylan performed one the aforementioned songs at a club that really hit home with her.

This made touring exciting for them because they were introducing folk and its power to the world while exploring whatever relationship they were potentially forming. And the film also focused on how Dylan continued to write more impactful songs as the nation was going through landmark events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Kennedy’s assassination. But the entire time, he was also trying to juggle his complicated and fading relationship with Sylvie; along with his fight with his record label and the promoters who only wanted him to stick to traditional folk songs.

There was an actual Rock-n-Roll star in him that was practically bursting out the seams but they tried everything they could to keep it in its cage. But Dylan kept fighting them every step of the way. And that’s what the film mainly focuses on, Dylan’s early career, his fight to break free of the musical shackles the industry tried to put on him, his struggle with his almost instant fame, and its effect on his relationships.

Now, I’ve always tolerated Chalamet because I’ve always seen him as a decent actor who knew how to play the whole heartthrob thing to a tee. But I never really took him seriously. He’s like 5’5” and weighs 60 lbs. And honestly, it was hard to see anyone else but Chalamet when the film started. I just saw this scrawny little scrub walking around on screen trying to be Dylan. But, as Dylan became more and more of a rebel, Chalamet did an a really good job of not only looking the part but actually somehow capturing the aura of Dylan. And pretty soon, I no longer saw Chalamet, I saw Dylan. Denzel Washington is the only other one who can pull this off. He’s so famous and has been around for so long that you go to see films of his simply because he’s in it. But he always has a way of morphing into his characters so perfectly that you no longer see Denzel but you see who he’s portraying. Malcolm X is the perfect example of this; he played that part so well that it was almost impossible to tell between him and the real thing when they showed photos and videos of Malcolm at the end. To this day, that remains the best acting job I’ve ever seen.

Well, unlike Denzel and Malcolm, Chalamet had to learn how to play the guitar and sing like Dylan. And it was unreal how well he absolutely nailed both. And when I say he nailed it, he absolutely did! First of all, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, Dylan is not the most attractive person who’s ever graced the stage. And he’s kind of jerk on a personal level too. So, to get Chalamet to play him in a movie is like the biggest glow up ever! I mean, let’s be real, Gilbert Gottfried (dated but spot on reference) would have been a more accurate representation because he has the hair and he wouldn’t even have to sing, his natural speaking voice sounds like Dylan.

But no one is paying to see Gottfried, people want to see Chalamet. And when they arrive they’ll be in for a treat. I haven’t seen Brody in The Brutalist yet but I’m casting my vote, for now, for Timmy to win Best Actor. He’s the reason you see this film. He nails Dylan’s singing voice and somehow makes him likeable. Norton and Barbaro are excellent too, especially when you see the tour de force (I so hate that term) they’re up against, as they are able to hold their own with someone like Dylan’s persona on the screen.

And the director James Mangold (Walk the Line) can almost make any story interesting, so the fact that he has such an interesting story to work with makes this two- and half-hour film feel more like an hour.

And it’s because of all these factors that I give this movie a rating of FRESH.