Unmasked and Anonymous

With James Mangold’s new film A Complete Unknown offering audiences the first conventional Hollywood biopic of Bob Dylan, now is a good time to revisit and reconsider Dylan’s own cinematic legacy. Although it stretches back some six decades, that legacy is modest, uneven, and often exasperating. But the 20th century’s greatest American singer-songwriter has nonetheless maintained a filmography of sorts, appearing in films made by others and films he has made himself. The results have been mixed, but never less than interesting.