Um Completo Desconhecido

It was almost embarrassing to watch this film. I felt like somebody crawled into my skull and rummaged around until they found the elements of the perfect movie.

I've read Pete Seeger's autobiography, "The Incomplete Folk Singer," and the autobiography of Joan Baez, "Daybreak" along with seeing the two of them in concert several times. I have played the music of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan so much that, finally, the grooves on their records said, "Look, we're exhausted. Play something else for a while."

That's my long-winded way of saying that everything felt authentic. In the opening scene Dylan takes his first steps in the Village. He passed Cafe Wha?. I started to cry. I became instantly homesick for that wonderful era.

Everyone was spot on. Timothee Chalamet was flawless as Dylan. I never thought anyone could get Joan Baez, but Monica Barbaro did a remarkable job (I wasn't familiar with her, but she just shot to the top of my list). But special praise has to be given to Ed Norton's transformation into Pete Seeger. There were times when he cocked his head or the breeze caught his hair or moved or inflected his voice or seeing him with his wife, Toshi, that Norton was gone. I only saw Pete. I cried when I saw him. I'm crying now, as I write this.

Please, if you know this era, and especially if you don't, see this movie.