My mini-review of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN.

Short version: I don’t have enough folk albums why do I not have enough folk albums?

Slightly longer version: it’s difficult to make a movie about a living person, particularly when they’re a cantankerous genius like, say, Bob Dylan. That means tap-dancing around the minor detail that, like most artists who know that they can get away with it, Dylan was often a jerk to people around him. They had to slaver Allowances Must Be Made For Maestros all over the film to keep Dylan looking cute-jerk, instead of just jerk.

Still, if you’re a Dylan fan, or a Baez fan, this is a fun flick (Johnny Cash shows up, too, with a little less hagiography since he’s dead). Certainly it’s filled me with the urge to get more albums. Even Pete Seeger’s and Woody Guthrie’s, and those two men were Commies. Then again, that’s just something you have to come to terms with if you’re going to listen to 1960s folk music*, and that’s the beginning and the end of it.

Moe Lane

*There was one particular scene where I’m going, Hold on. Am I supposed to be laughing at their horrified expressions? I might be having an anomalous reaction to that, then. You’ll know the scene when you see it.