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In a very musical year at the Oscars, A Complete Unknown was truly one of my favorites of the year. The performances from Timothee Chalamet, Ed Norton, and Monica Barbaro blew me away - and for the film, I understand all three had to learn guitar and Ed Norton banjo for an unbelievably convincing turn as Pete Seeger. It is a biopic that begins when Bob Dylan arrives in New York, figures out where Woody Guthrie is hospitalized, and visits him with this guitar and his impressive lyrics. He and Pete figure out pretty quickly that this kid has the makings of a star. We watch Dylan's rise to fame and his ultimate ambivalence about what stardom does to his life. He doesn't appreciate being in the spotlight, and he REALLY doesn't want to be locked in a box of what "folk music" means. He doesn't want to be anyone's performing monkey, so he won't play the game, nor will he play Blowin' in the Wind, no matter how much the audience wants to hear it.
All of this tumult though is overridden by the pure joy of Dylan's songs and try as I might to be quiet in the theater, I couldn't help singing along. The music is timeless, and even when you're watching what sometimes looks like a petulant child (do you think that I like doing every thing required of me in MY job? That's called being a grown up, Bob), the performances and the story are so compelling that they can't be resisted by the hardest of movie goers. I hope that audiences of all ages are going, but if you're over 50 and you haven't seen it, I just don't know what you are doing with your life.
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