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A Complete Unknown Review
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures
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Directed By: James Mangold
Written By: James Mangold and Jay Cocks; Based on the book Dylan Goes Electric!
by Elijah Wald
Runtime: 141 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for language.
Timothée Chalamet – Bob Dylan
Edward Norton – Pete Seeger
Elle Fanning – Sylvie Russo
Monica Barbaro – Joan Baez
Boyd Holbrook – Johnny Cash
Dan Fogler – Albert Grossman
Will Harrison – Bob Neuwirth
Scoot McNairy – Woody Guthrie
Norbert Leo Butz – Alan Lomax
Eriko Hatsune – Toshi Seeger
Director James Mangold explores the life of Bob Dylan in the new biopic, A Complete Unknown. The film showcases Bob Dylan from his arrival in New York City in 1961 through 1965 and the forging of his significant personal relationships that put him on the path of becoming one of the biggest music and rock and roll legends in history. Timothée Chalamet stars as the young Bob Dylan in a remarkable, understated performance, depicting a young man obsessed with his craft who grapples with fame and his personal relationships.
Shortly after arriving in New York, Dylan seeks out the ailing Woody Guthrie (McNairy), quickly impressing Woody’s friend, Pete Seeger (Norton), who was also visiting Guthrie at that time. Recognizing Dylan’s potential, Seeger takes Dylan under his wing, helping him get his foot in the door and playing his first gigs at coffee shops in Greenwich Village. Dylan quickly gains representation by high-powered music manager Albert Grossman (Fogler), but his early work fails to gain any traction as he when only performing existing songs. Once he starts recording his own music, Dylan becomes an overnight sensation.
Dylan emerged as a talent in the 1960s, a turbulent time in America, with social and cultural upheaval. As the song says, “The times, they [were] a-changin ‘.” Dylan recognizes those changes, and with his music, he successfully voices the zeitgeist of the American experience and the transformation of America in the 1960s. A Complete Unknown portrays Dylan witnessing the cultural revolution and his introduction to the social justice movement through his New York artist girlfriend, Sylvie Russo (Fanning). Soon, Dylan starts performing his own songs, his popularity skyrockets overnight. He also shares a unique romantic relationship with the more established music star Joan Baez (Barbaro), who begins performing some of Dylan’s songs. Via his indelible voice and transcendent lyrics, Dylan’s folk music provokes his meteoric rise through the music world, fulfilling Seeger’s vision of bringing American folk music to the masses.
Once Dylan emerges as a breakout talent, he struggles with his newfound fame. As he begins his career as a folk musician, Dylan does not wish to be placed in a specific box or style, and he starts leaning more toward modern rock and roll music and collaborators. Dylan’s evolution bristles his folk music contemporaries, as exemplified by his performance at the Newport Folk Festival.
Dylan’s relationships also suffer as he likes to maintain a distance from his friends and loved ones. For Dylan, the music and the art come first, and he downplays his real name and background as a Jewish-born Midwesterner named Robert Zimmerman. Dylan claims he used to work in the carnival, and his musical talent comes from self-teaching, along with ideas he picked up from other wayward musicians in the circus. Considering Dylan’s aloof, enigmatic nature, it’s ambiguous whether the stories Dylan shares about his background are legitimate. Mangold adeptly integrates Dylan’s aloofness throughout the picture. The growth of Dylan’s legend and popularity create discord with his mentor, Seeger. Seeger has a vision of folk music growing mainstream, but Dylan sees himself as more than just a folk musician, seeking horizons beyond mere labels.
Mangold plays exceptionally well in the biopic sandbox, and A Complete Unknown exemplifies that idea. It depicts Dylan as a moody artist, albeit an incredibly gifted musical genius. Chalamet excels in capturing Dylan through the 1960s when his legend begins. Even at a length of roughly two hours and twenty minutes, A Complete Unknown runs at a nice pace while never growing too deliberate. Mangold authentically captures the look and attitude of the era, creating an immersive, transportive ambiance.
Mangold and Chalamet use Dylan as a fascinating examination of the artist’s iconoclasm. First, Dylan performs folk music to give voice and a battle cry to a changing America. However, as his career progresses, that eventually morphs into Dylan breaking away from folk music as he “goes electric.” As an iconoclast, Dylan marches to the beat of his own drum, and he strives to shake things up and break the rules, receiving encouragement from his music idol-turned-penpal, Johnny Cash (Holbrook). Dylan and Seeger share an interesting relationship. Although Seeger has his vision for folk music and Dylan’s career, he must learn to accept that Dylan is following his own path, which is beyond Seeger’s control.
A Complete Unknown features a cast of stunning performances that successfully nail the performances of well-known music icons. Ed Norton delivers an incredible performance as the salt-of-the-earth Pete Seeger. Barbaro’s Joan Baez perfectly captures that spark Dylan and Baez shared when they perform onstage together. Even vintage footage shows that Baez and Dylan had an undeniable chemistry while onstage. A Complete Unknown depicts that spark well, which after a brief romance, evolves into a professional collaboration and rivalry. Boyd Holbrook has a small, yet memorable, performance as Johnny Cash, making the most of his screentime, as his meetings with Cash come at pivotal times in both musicians’ lives. Additionally, the actors put incredible time and work into capturing their roles’ musical talents, and they come across brilliantly onscreen.
A Complete Unknown only suffers from the usual trappings of historical biopics, specifically with how the narrative alters and fictionalizes people and events. That said, the outcry from the folk music community when Dylan “goes electric” is relatively accurate to the period, as showcased in the film’s second half. However, biopics do tend to overly glamorize and gloss up their subjects, downplaying their flaws. Dylan smokes like a fiend throughout the film, but the plot jettisons his issues with drug use and his heroin addiction. His romantic relationships with Russo and Baez diverge somewhat from real-life events. Russo is actually a fictionalized version of Dylan’s real-life girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.
A Complete Unknown works so well, and it’s a musical biopic where a sequel arguably makes sense. The film only covers an approximate five-year period of Dylan’s career. Although the movie depicts one of the most pivotal eras of Dylan’s illustrious career, there is still more to come. With that in mind, a Bob Dylan movie sequel would make sense. Nevertheless, A Complete Unknown successfully translates the plight of musical genius and how artists simply must spread their wings, even at the expense of their close relationships.
