After experiencing the museum, Montgomery felt different. My class was silent. Nobody cared to crack any jokes. The air even started to smell different — like rotting garbage, reminiscent of the Southern Magnolia that Billie Holiday sung about decades prior. 

The film’s title, “A Complete Unknown,” serves as a guide for how it approaches its subject material. Mangold’s script works to uphold the mythology of Dylan as an unknowable artist — who, from the beginning, was reluctant to be defined by others and by himself.