Movie Review: ‘A Complete Unknown’

Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.Directed By James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (‘Dune: Part Two’) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (‘Maleficent’) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (‘Motherless Brooklyn’) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’) as Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook (‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’) as Johnny Cash.

​Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.Directed By James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (‘Dune: Part Two’) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (‘Maleficent’) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (‘Motherless Brooklyn’) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’) as Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook (‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’) as Johnny Cash.   

Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.

Directed By James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (‘Dune: Part Two’) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (‘Maleficent’) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (‘Motherless Brooklyn’) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (‘Speak No Evil’) as Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook (‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’) as Johnny Cash.

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Initial Thoughts

Director James Mangold delivers a brilliant and vibrant biopic about legendary musician Bob Dylan that completely captures his complex mystic and iconic music. Mangold wisely focuses on the early part of Dylan’s career, beginning with his arrival in New York, his rise in the folk music scene, and culminating with his controversial choice to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Timothée Chalamet gives a career-defining performance as Dylan and is completely hypnotic in the role. The actor completely embodies the character with the awkward cool and determination of Dylan and is remarkable in the musical sequences, so much so that at times you forget you are not actually watching Dylan. Chalamet’s performance is supported by excellent turns from both Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Ed Norton as folk musician Pete Seeger.

Script and Direction

The movie begins in 1963 by introducing us to an awkward young song writer, who has just arrived in New York City and has already adopted the persona of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet). Dylan’s first move is to visit his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is dying in a local hospital. Dylan performs a song he has written for Woody and impresses folk legend Pete Seeger (Ed Norton).

Seeger soon introduces Dylan on the popular New York folk music scene, and while trying to get his first album produced, meets artist Sylvie Russo (Susan Rotolo in real life) played by Elle Fanning, and young musician Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Dylan soon begins having relationships with both women, while his musical career takes off.

Confused by his new success and being labeled “the voice of his generation” by the media, Dylan seeks support from fellow musician Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). Dylan continues to struggle with his success and pushes to create new music that doesn’t fit into the mold of what Seeger and others want for him. It all culminates with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan is the headliner and famously causes a riot by using an electric guitar.

Based on author Elijah Wald’s ‘Dylan Goes Electric’, the script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is excellent and the choice to focus on the first three years of Dylan’s career rather than a life-spanning biopic was a smart one. Mangold, of course, is no stranger to rock n’ roll biopics having made the Johnny Cash film ‘Walk the Line,’ but in my opinion this is a far superior movie and putting ‘Logan’ aside, may be the best work of Mangold’s impressive career.

Focusing on this specific period allows the director to really examine how Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, and his impact on music and society. 1960s New York comes alive in a vibrant way, and the images shown reflect what we’ve seen of Dylan in that time. Mangold is also able to spotlight the folk music movement of the early 60s, Dylan’s role in that, and how controversial it was in that community when Dylan “betrayed” them and went electric.

Obviously, if you are Dylan fan you will love the music as it is mostly his, with a few traditional songs and music from Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash thrown in. All the big Dylan hits of that time are included such as ‘Masters of War’, ‘Blowing in the Wind’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, and of course, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. The musical performances are fantastic, and the actors, who sang themselves, remarkably sound like the people they are portraying, especially Chalamet and Barbaro.

Criticism

Full disclosure: I’m a self-proclaimed Bob Dylan expert. I’ve personally been studying his music as a fan for the last 30 years and have seen him live in concert easily over 20 times. So, I was ready to be quite critical of the movie, but to be honest, I fell so in love with the characters, the performances, the music and Mangold’s direction, that I really left the theater with very little to complain about.

However, if I had to be critical, at 2 hours and 21 minutes, the movie is a little long. It didn’t bother me much, but I think you could have a much tighter film if you cut 10 minutes or so from the run time. The easiest way to do this would be to cut one or two of the musical numbers. Look, I love ‘Masters of War’, but do we need to see Dylan perform it twice in the same movie?

Also, I understand having Norton perform one of Pete Seeger’s songs at the beginning of the movie to establish who that character is, but also watching him perform at the Newport Festival towards the finale seemed unnecessary. My guess would be that Mangold got a little too precious with the musical performances and didn’t want to “cut any of his babies”, and I totally get that, and in the long run doesn’t really hurt the movie much.

My other small critique would be that the film completely skips Dylan’s seminal 1965 tour of England, which is where he was first introduced to electric guitars. The movie makes mention of the trip before and after it happens, but never took the time to explore it and I have a theory as to why Mangold made that choice.

D.A. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’ chronicles in real time Dylan’s tour of England, and my guess would be that Mangold did not want to retread that territory. If that is the case, then that was a smart choice, as one of my issues with director Michael Mann’s boxing biopic ‘Ali’ was that the third act was a shot for shot remake of the Oscar-winning documentary ‘When We Were Kings’.

Cast and Performances

Mangold has really assembled a wonderful ensemble cast but obviously the movie hinges on Timothée Chalamet’s performance. The young actor who has been excellent in films like ‘Call Me by Your Name’, ‘Wonka’ and the ‘Dune’ series gives his best work to date as Dylan. I would imagine this was a daunting character for Chalamet to play and he completely nails it from beginning to end.

The actor perfectly embodies Dylan, his awkward coolness, and his legendary mystic. His musical performances are astounding and the best compliment I can give him is to say that there were times I forgot I was watching an actor and thought I was really watching Dylan. It is easily one of the best male performances of this year and I would be shocked if he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar, and depending on who else is in the competition, I would imagine he’ll be the frontrunner.

Also deserving of an Oscar nomination is Monica Barbaro who is incredible as Joan Baez. Not only does the actress look like Baez, but she also sounds exactly like her when she is singing and has excellent chemistry with Chalamet. Their love story, for me, was the heart of the movie. Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan’s other love interest Sylvie, has a bit of a thankless role, as I did feel her character was given short shrift by the script. Regardless, the actress is a ray of sunshine in all her scenes and has wonderful chemistry with Chalamet too.

Ed Norton could also end up earning an Oscar nomination for his work, as the actor gives a quiet yet strong performance as Dylan’s mentor and eventual rival, Pete Seeger. It’s also worth mentioning Boyd Holbrook’s fun performance as Johnny Cash, but with two short scenes, it is basically a glorified cameo. Finally, Scoot McNairy has the difficult job of playing an afflicted Woody Guthrie, and while his performance didn’t quite work for me, the actor made the most of the situation.

Final Thoughts

In the end, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is probably the best version of a Bob Dylan movie we could ever ask for. And it’s important to remember that Bob Dylan isn’t even a real person … he’s a mysterious character that a young Robert Zimmerman created in New York in the early 60s. Given that, director James Mangold has created a biopic that both honors the legend of Bob Dylan, while examining the real man behind the persona, without ruining the mystic that the artist has spent so many decades cultivating.

I expect the film will receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and possibly a nomination for Best Director as well. In a year that saw disappointing biopics of both Bob Marley (‘Bob Marley: One Love‘) and Amy Winehouse (‘Back to Black‘), I can safely say that ‘A Complete Unknown’ is the best biopic about a popular musician we’ve seen in recent years and features a transcending and career-defining performance from Timothée Chalamet.

‘A Complete Unknown’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.

What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Who is in the cast of ‘A Complete Unknown’?

List of Biopics Based on Musicians:

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