James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown” is a music biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as 60s icon Bob Dylan in the early stages of his career. It meets Dylan right as he arrives in New York and follows his progression into becoming a superstar.
Mangold is best known for directing “Walk the Line,” the Johnny Cash biopic. Unlike “Walk the Line,” the film “A Complete Unknown” avoids a lot of the same trappings that make music biopics generic— starting from a character’s birth, ending at their death (which in this case wouldn’t be possible because Dylan is still alive), getting addicted to drugs and more. The film employs a common progression seen in biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman,” leading to audience familiarity with the genre. This film focuses on the first few years of Bob Dylan’s career, which makes it more about the emerging folk scene in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s rather than Dylan’s life story.
The supporting cast includes Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. Elle Fanning also plays a major character in the film named Sylvie Russo, based on an ex-girlfriend of Dylan’s.
By focusing less on the major achievements of the character, and focusing more on his rise to fame, the first half of the movie feels more like a hang out movie, as Dylan couch surfs and floats between relationships. It seems like the kind of movie Richard Linklater would make because it’s in the vein of “Dazed and Confused” or “Everybody Wants Some.”
The film is beholden not only to the music of Dylan but the music of Baez and Seeger as well. With Chalamet and Norton playing their instruments live to camera, it doesn’t even feel like acting anymore. It feels like Bob Dylan is there live figuring out his lyrics to “Girl from North Country,” or out in Newport singing “It Ain’t Me Babe” with Joan Baez.
Everybody views Dylan as a genius and makes a lot of concessions for the awkwardness or blunt quality in his behavior, but the film does not shy away from the reality of who he was. Those familiar with his work are not surprised to see that he lacks any kind of faithfulness to the people in his life.
Dylan proves this time and time again, whether it be in his relationships with women, or with Seeger who took him in when he got to New York. It gets at what made Bob Dylan such a cool and fascinating artist to the public – he was puzzling and cryptic and aloof and a jerk, but an incredible songwriter all the same.
Where the film switches gears is where it starts to lose what made the first half so captivating. When Bob Dylan gets back from tour — donning a leather jacket and some shades — he seems even more distant than before. His general affection towards the people around him becomes less personal which makes it almost hard to watch.
The film quickly rushes towards its end, and in the last half hour viewers might feel unsatisfied with the direction it takes. When it ends, it plays the same title cards about where the characters ended up in real life, a commonly added touch in every biopic. However, this does not detract from the rest of the film.
Between the cozy sweaters and atmosphere, the beautiful anamorphic cinematography and the incredible performances, the film delivers exactly what is expected from a big studio biopic. It transcends being a story solely about Bob Dylan and becomes about what it means to be compelled to create and share art with the world.
Verdict: The film is definitely worth watching, even in spite of two hours of folk music.
