‘A Complete Unknown‘ Review: Timothée Chalamet Rocks in Rather Restrained Bob Dylan Biopic
It's been 20 years since James Mangold dropped the music biopic of all time, Walk The Line, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash. Nobody remembers it, and don't act like you do. It says something about how forgettable your movie was when the most memorable thing was spawning Jake Kasdan's parody flick Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. With A Complete Unknown – a bio-drama about Bob Dylan's early years starring one of the best actors in the game right now, Timothée Chalamet – Mangold boldly returns to the genre in another generic yet well-crafted flick that will surely get a dozen Oscar nominations.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
R: For language
Runtime: 2 Hours and 20 Minutes
Production Companies: Veritas Entertainment Group, Range Media Partners, The Picture Company, Turnpike Films, White Water, Searchlight Pictures
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Director: James Manglold
Writers: James Mangold, Jay Cocks
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy
Release Date: December 25, 2024
In 1961, Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) traveled from Minnesota to New York City to visit his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), as he was treated for Huntington's Disease. At the hospital where he resides, Dylan meets Guthrie and his pal Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) who is already visiting him, and he proceeds to perform an original song in his honor. The “Song To Woody” ignites a fire in Seeger's eyes, and he takes Dylan under his wing, enabling him to establish himself in the folk music scene. Seeger isn't the only one whose eyes he catches, for superstar folk musician Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) also recognizes his skill and talent for writing such stellar music on the whim. Soon afterward, Dylan meets young political activist and author Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), whom he begins to see romantically. Once his records begin to drop and the world catches wind of his incredible songwriting, Dylan is thrown into superstardom and brings folk music into the mainstream. He soon develops disdain for what he wrought, complicating his relationships with Russo and Baez. All of this led up to the Newport Folk Festival incident in 1965.
Timothée Chalamet, The Master of Disguise
Timothée Chalamet is one of my favorite working actors today, mostly because he disguises himself in every role. Even if he sometimes feels a miscast, like in Wonka, he pours his soul and tries to camouflage so you don't see Timothée Chalamet.
A Complete Unknown is another case of him operating like a chameleon while commanding the screen. Beyond nailing Dylan’s voice and physicality, Chalamet shines through, keeping his character’s mysterious aura alive within his portrayal. He's impossible to read – a mystery whose intentions you can't understand but are fascinated to follow nonetheless. Due to my limited knowledge of Dylan as a person and performer, I was engrossed in Chalamet’s portrayal, perceiving it in a manner that felt like a challenge for him and not an easy scheme to garner Oscar nominations (regardless of whether the film itself is doing that).
I'm more impressed with his performance as Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two than as Bob Dylan because the heel turn he made is something I'd never seen from him before. As Dylan, he has to command the front tenfold on his very own, more so than in his past few roles that relied on spectacle, doing so with ease. Granted, it still feels like an impersonation of Dylan, but it's enough to carry you through the film and is barely distracting. Once again, Chalamet proves why he's one of the best performers in the game.
A Better Biopic Movie is Found in Joan Baez
A Complete Unknown features fine supporting performances from Ed Norton as Pete Seeger and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo (based on Dylan's then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo), despite having so little to do and bland material to work with. That said, there’s a more intriguing movie within the lens of Joan Baez, who is written as the most well-rounded character. Monica Barbaro's portrayal of the renowned folk singer is remarkably potent, as she plays as an observer of character, attempting to penetrate Dylan’s persona with glances as if she were studying him. At times, she's like an avatar for the audience, the smartest and most professional person in the room, and the only person grounded in a realm of familiarity. Barbaro textures her with heft in places where the writing and Dylan himself are so hollow. Truthfully, I found Barbaro's performance far more captivating than Chalamet's.
Confining the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan to a Limited Format
My comprehension of Bob Dylan only extends to "Knockin’ On Heaven's Door" as his only song in my Spotify library. However, I knew he was one of those late 20th-century musicians who liked to go with the flow and didn't want to be confined to an environment. To its benefit, Mangold doesn't use A Complete Unknown to encompass all of Dylan's career, making it feel tighter than other traditional biopics. Despite the focus on Dylan's early years during his folk era, the film’s structure still adheres to the conformity of the music biopic format in all its Wikipedia-page-turned-screenplay characteristics.
For a person like Dylan who was all about challenging people's perspectives of music, the film does him a major disservice. Mangold and co-writer Jay Cocks put Dylan in a strange position where they attempt to capture his essence in a starry-eyed "senpai notice me" fashion while trying to appease the ultimate Bob Dylan fans. It's not far off from how Jason Reitman treated Lorne Michaels with Saturday Night. While Mangold's approach to the subject is more precise, the resulting package is middling due to the generic content within the restrictive format.
If you're telling the audience that Bob Dylan was an enigma, wouldn’t it be fitting to give him an experimental, stylish, or less monotonous movie? Throughout A Complete Unknown, it seems like Mangold is stuck in time and refuses to look at the current landscape of music biopics. Other movies like Rocketman, Elvis, hell, and even Better Man, take bold risks to handle their figures and tell stories that fit their personalities and lives. Coming from someone who’s not so familiar with Dylan, his esoteric nature would correlate best with a film that matches his personality. Mangold doesn't have the juice for that.
Final Thoughts
James Mangold's A Complete Unknown features another great Timothée Chalamet performance. However, the hollow script awkwardly tries to deliver standard biopic beats for Bob Dylan fans, so it sort of appeals to no one.
Rating: 2.5/5
