December 31, 2024 – A young fellow who claims to have been a circus performer from Hibbing, Minnesota shows up in New York in 1961 to visit his hero, folk music legend Woody Guthrie (played by Scoot McNairy of “Argo”). Woody, from his hospital bed, asks him to play a song, and the young fellow, Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet of “Dune”) a complete unknown, plays and sings a song he wrote for him, and is discovered by yet another folk music legend who witnesses this performance.

Pete Seeger (Edward Norton of “Asteroid City”) immediately sees Dylan's talent, and introduces him to the New York music scene, where he is quickly spotted by record producers. At first, Dylan records covers of other songwriters' music before the record producers realize the music goldmine they have stumbled upon. Dylan writes hot songs like a volcano spews lava. He is a complete unknown when the movie starts, but he sure doesn't remain unknown for long.

Dylan hobnobs with the musical stars of the day, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro of “Top Gun: Maverick”) Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook of “The Bikeriders”) as well as Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Jimmy Dean.

While Dylan rises rapidly, he has love affairs, first with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning of “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) then with Joan Baez and others. His affair with Baez was particularly intense and rocky, and was the subject of one of Baez's biggest hit songs, “Diamonds and Rust.”

While the movie explores Dylan's romantic affairs, his relationships with other musicians, record producers and the public, the primary focus of the movie is music, with big musical numbers from beginning to end. When Chalamet performs “The Times They Are a-Changin’” in the movie, it hit me like a ton of bricks. This is the anthem of the Baby Boom generation.

That's right, Chalamet really sings all of these songs live in the film, as does Monica Barbaro (Baez) and Boyd Holbrook (Cash). The music in this film is amazing. The performances are exceptional, evoking the original performances of the time. This movie doesn't technically qualify as a musical, but if it did, it would blow most musicals away.

The most famous event in the movie is when Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, angering Seeger and many other folk music fans. Like many events in the movie it didn't happen exactly the way it was portrayed on screen. The film contains a lot of altered or fictional events, but it still captures the essence of this era.

I am no expert on Dylan, and I do not care if the movie is not historically accurate. I am, however, a fan of the music played in this film. The music, the acting and the musical performances all blew me away, so I am giving this movie an A. Kudos to the actors, the musicians and the director, James Mangold of “Ford v Ferrari” (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks and Elijah Wald).

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