A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens in 1961, as a young Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) arrives in New York City to find musician Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). Meanwhile, fellow musician Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) is on trial for a song that Woody has written. After being dismissed, Pete performs the song (“This Land is Your Land”) outside the courthouse next to his wife Toshi (Eriko Hatsune).

Pete goes to the hospital to visit an ailing Woody. Bob finds them and is allowed to enter. He plays a song that he wrote, “Song For Woody”, which he performs on his guitar for Pete and Woody. The latter, unable to verbally communicate, begins pounding on the dresser next to him in approval. Pete takes Bob home to the family, where he starts to play more of his music.

During Bob’s time with Pete, he is brought into the New York folk music scene. Bob works on his music and is taken to an open mic night to perform. There, he witnesses Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) performing. When Bob gets up to play, he makes flirtatious comments towards her before performing his song “I Was Young When I Left Home”. This earns Bob the attention of music manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler), who immediately decides to take him on as a client. Bob starts to record a cover of “Fixin’ to Die”, and while Grossman wants to record Bob’s original music, the higher-ups want him to do covers for now.

Bob goes to a music performance at a church, where he meets Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) and begins to date her. They watch “Now, Voyager” at the theater and discuss the themes at a restaurant afterwards. Sylvie takes note of Bob’s contrarian mindset and recommends him an author that shares similar views. They later attend a civil rights protest together.

Sylvie takes an extended trip to Rome after an argument with Bob over the way he treats her when she talks about herself and how he barely talks about his own past. He later goes to a show to perform “Masters of War”, which Joan watches. They later leave and sleep together. In the morning, Bob makes a comment about Joan’s music being like “oil paintings in a dentist’s office”. He then starts to play “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which Joan joins him in singing.

Sylvie returns from her trip, just as Bob’s career really starts to take off. He performs “Girl From The North Country” during a show with Joan, and Sylvie begins to note how close she and Bob are. More people begin to recognize Bob on the street and buy his album, and he even receives a letter from Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) saying that his “Freewheelin'” album is a prized possession. The two become pen pals and even perform at the same show. Bob performs “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, which impresses people watching like Pete, Toshi, Joan, and Cash, while Sylvie is moved to tears.

In 1965, Bob is a household name but still feels that he is boxed in to playing a specific type of folk music. He meets fellow musician Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison) and goes with him to one of his performances. Things get sour when an overzealous fan grabs Bob’s shades off his face, and he gets punched by her boyfriend when he tries to get them back. He goes to Sylvie’s apartment so she can tend to him, but he sees that she is already with another man.

Bob begins to adapt to the political and social unrest of the time and decides to shift his music towards the electric folk rock genre, which doesn’t sit well with the planning committee of a music festival who are used to playing Bob’s regular stuff. He records new songs like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Highway 61 Revisited”. He later visits the set of Pete’s “Rainbow Quest” show where he has Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield) as a guest. Jesse lets Bob borrow his guitar to have him play “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Lot to Cry”.

Bob later goes to Joan’s apartment to reconnect, but she makes him leave after a while. They later go on their tour, but things take a turn when Bob tries to play his own music apart from the setlist, while Joan tries to start playing “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Bob makes a scene and tries to get Joan to play something else, but she plays the song herself while he walks offstage.

Bob gets a band together, and they begin to record “Like A Rolling Stone”. He picks up Sylvie on his motorcycle as he is heading to Newport for their Folk Festival. Sylvie watches as Bob and Joan perform “It Ain’t Me Babe”, seeing the chemistry between them, and she leaves. When Bob finds out from Neuwirth that Sylvie left, he rushes after her, but she makes it clear in the most peaceful terms that they are done.

Pete visits Bob in his hotel room on the morning of his closing act performance. The festival committee has become so concerned with Bob playing electric music, that they have Pete come in trying to convince him to change his mind about it, even trying to make Bob see that it would affect Pete’s own career. On his way out of the hotel, Bob runs into a drunken Cash, who encourages him to go ahead and play his music even if it upsets others.

That night, Bob and his band take the stage, beginning with their performance of “Maggie’s Farm”. The crowd reaction is immediately hateful, with many booing Bob and demanding he play his old stuff, while a smaller group is appreciative of the new sound. The head of the committee tries to shut down the music, but is physically fought away from the equipment. Bob starts to play “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Lot to Cry”, and people start throwing stuff at the stage. Pete eventually tries to get the music shut down, but both Grossman and Toshi stand in his way. After finishing with “Like A Rolling Stone”, Pete pleads with Bob to finish the show with a folk song. Bob initially refuses until Cash gives him a guitar to go ahead and play “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. The crowd is pleased.

The next day, Joan catches Bob before he leaves. She comments that he “won” and got the freedom to play his music, though Bob asks what was really won. He then goes to visit Woody at the hospital one last time before leaving town on his motorcycle.

The ending text states that one month after the Newport festival, Bob Dylan released “Highway 61 Revisited”, which was said to be one of the most influential albums of all time. Dylan and Pete Seeger reunited in 1968 to play a tribute concert to Woody Guthrie. Seeger played folk music and was a major civil rights activist until his death in 2014. Joan Baez released over 30 albums and wrote the song “Diamonds and Rust” in 1975 over her relationship with Dylan. Since 1965, Dylan has released over 55 albums and continues to tour worldwide. He is the only musician to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, though he did not attend the ceremony.

The film is a look at folk music superstar Bob Dylan's rise to fame, and his evolution from simple folk rock to electric rock.

Bob is brought into the music scene by musician Pete Seeger after seeing Bob perform a song for Woody Guthrie. Bob's music propels him to stardom, and he begins a relationship with an artist named Sylvie Russo, as well as fellow musician Joan Baez. While Bob wants to play his own original music, he feels confined by the industry to only play what they want to hear.

By 1965, Bob adapts to the times and wants to play electric music with a band, something that doesn't sit right with his fans or the planning committee of the upcoming Newport Folk Festival. Bob is encouraged by Johnny Cash to play his own music, while both of his relationships with Sylvie and Joan fizzle out, especially due to a disastrous tour with Joan that falters due to Bob's ego.

Bob plays his music at the Folk Festival, which gets a mostly negative reception, but he is allowed to play all the way through and performs a regular folk song to finish things. Bob leaves with some small victory of his freedom to play his music.