SAN FRANCISCO OUTER RICHMOND DISTRICT – BALBOA THEATER
Lee Heidhues 1.10.2025
The historic 99 year old Balboa Theater in the San Francisco outer Richmond district is the perfect venue to watch the biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ chronicling the rise, circa early-mid 1960’s, of cultural icon 83 years young Bob Dylan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Unknown
Sitting in the old theater on a January late afternoon with a group of mostly folks who survived the 1960’s was a magical mystery tour in the cultural way back machine.
There’s a lot of plot and music to unpack in this two hour-twenty minute extravaganza and it’s more than the continuous pulsating music. The old school Balboa Cinema does justice to the soundtrack with its hi-octane speaker system.
Just as impressive is the plot. It goes deep into Dylan’s romantic and professional life with women in his life; including Sylvie Russo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suze_Rotolo and Joan Baez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez
Dylan’s professional and personal relationships with a number of people who influenced his career is explored; Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Albert Grossman to name several.
In all this is a fast paced film which is an illustrative and entertaining high volume look at the people, politics, culture and music of a long gone era.
Bob Dylan’s portrayal by Timothy Chalamet is almost too real. His impersonation of Dylan is realistic in the extreme. Timothy sings numerous Dylan classics and plays acoustic, electric guitars, harmonicas and more. Including a Kazoo in the great song “Highway 61 Revisited.”
Top photo. Liz stands in front of the Balboa Cinema marquee for ‘A Complete Unknown’ after the movie. Liz helpfully directed two patrons to the nearby bus stop. They had traveled from a distant part of San Francisco to see the film at this neighborhood theater
Lee's Perspective 