A Complete Unknown Movie Review By Afdah
Throughout A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan laments any attempt to label him. “They should just let me be,” he complains after a party where he felt pressured by everyone in attendance to perform. When pressed for details on what they should let him be, he responds, “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.” He will find exactly what they don’t want him to be when he begins experimenting with electric instruments, a perceived betrayal in the folk music community that comes to a head in the film’s climax, the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Director James Mangold’s reverential piece of American mythmaking that doubles as a Bob Dylan biopic largely plays to Dylan’s desires, leaving the man himself “a complete unknown”, rather exploring his artistry and placing his music at the center of the film. This movie is available to watch on Afdah stream.
