A Complete Unknown is a fine movie about Bob Dylan, the self-mythologizing son of a Minnesota mining town who took the world of folk music by storm

A Complete Unknown follows Bob Dylan from his arrival on the Greenwich Village folk scene in 1961 to his electrified performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival .

Timothée Chalamet feels less like his character and more like the third -place finisher in a Bob Dylan look-alike contest, one who can't muster the mystique.

Bob Dylan is a singularity, allowing others to accompany him only if they can match his pace.

The real Dylan was, at least for a time, immersed in the collaborative spirit of the American folk movement.

Bob and Joan become lovers along the way, on and off, as he pursues relationships with other women.

The music biopic's job is to lay bare the truth of its subject, to reduce the ineffability of creation and the chaos of life to a manageable narrative.

This isn't an empathetic portrait of a tempestuous genius but a movie about what it’s like to stand next to one, to pass through the same circles.