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‘A Complete Unknown’ Channels the Secret of Bob Dylan
The beauty of the movie, and of Timothée Chalamet's performance, is it captures how the key to Dylan's music wasn't its meaning but its faith.
But Bob Dylan, from the moment he came up, in 1961, had endless labels attached to him — protest singer, folk musician who “went electric” — that somehow fail to describe him and his place in the universe. When Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), who has become romantically involved with him, says, “You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,” that’s the dimension of him she’s referring to — that in addition to competitively dismissing her, he’ll make up stuff about his past (like saying that he joined the circus) and refuse to cop to it, not allowing even his lover to pin down who he is. The hushed lilt of his voice on “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” The ecstasy of the harmonica solo in “Absolutely Sweet Marie.” The way he doesn’t just sing a lyric — he seesaws it, and brays and caresses it, and deposits it right into your soul, even when you don’t know what it means.
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