Photo: Rowland Scherman/Getty Image; Searchlight Pictures
In its retelling of Bob Dylan’s rise through the Greenwich Village folk scene and eventual decision to go electric at the Newport Folk Festival, A Complete Unknown is unafraid to indulge in a few flights of fancy — scenes that blatantly didn’t occur as written, but that nonetheless consolidate some larger idea about Dylan. In one of the more egregious instances, the Cuban Missile Crisis is happening, and panic strikes New York City, where Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) is shown frantically packing a suitcase then racing out into the streets. After failing to hail a cab, she’s drawn into the Gaslight Cafe by a familiar voice — it’s Dylan, of course, rising to the moment by performing
