Timothée Chalamet Inhabits Bob Dylan’s Mysteries in A Complete Unknown: Review

The Pitch: In 1961, a young man rides a motorcycle up to the hospital where Woody Guthrie is being cared for and introduces himself as Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), and he plays a song on the guitar for his folk hero. From there, the early years of Dylan’s career unfold, as he chafes against the music industry’s expectations, connects with other seismic figures like Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), and eventually evolves into one of the 20th century’s most important musical artists.

The Times They Are A’Changing: Writer/director James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown shines in its specifics, bringing to life Greenwich Village in the early 1960s on a real and tangible level. Not only that, but the musical community into which Dylan slipped during that time feels fully realized, from venues that might seem unconventional today to the industry events Bob gets reluctantly dragged to — all of it necessary scene-setting for the film’s climax, set at the infamous Newport Folk Festival where Dylan defied the fest’s organizers and played on stage with electric instruments.

The fully-realized portrait explores not only how Dylan emerged on the music scene in the early 1960s, but the ways in which he’s always held himself back from public scrutiny: He begins the film in the process of creating his own image, and by the end we’ve seen his future spelled out in the actions of the present. That future is one of revolution, as we witness Dylan’s talent come out as both a performer and a songwriter, finding his own unique sound despite attempts to keep him confined in certain boxes.

Bound for Glory: Timothée Chalamet, Consequence’s Film Performer of the Year, earns his accolade through a dedication to craft — not just learning to play the guitar and harmonica, but also master Dylan’s vocal inflections both in song and in speech. What’s remarkable about his work is that it never feels like mimicry, his intonations fully embedded in the essence of Bob without feeling forced, and he never struggles to capture the kind of quiet arrogance that defined Bob’s public persona at certain points.

Additionally, Monica Barbaro proves more than capable at capturing the passion and power of Joan Baez, especially in the moments where Bob’s pissed her off, and deserves to be called out for it. It’s one thing to deliver a good musical performance; it’s a whole other thing to perform a song perfectly and professionally while also communicating to the camera how mad you are at the guy singing next to you.

It’s the kind of magic only possible because of a talented performer actively doing it all live. Overall, the film’s use of these performance sequences, featuring the cast performing live, is remarkably effective: Edward Norton’s portrayal of Pete Seeger features him at his most affable, and there’s something so charming about watching him lead a crowd through “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh).” And whether strumming his way through someone else’s folk song or diving into the world of rock and roll, on stage Chalamet is electric. (Yes, that pun was intentional.)

A Complete Unknown (Searchlight Pictures)

Once Was a True Love of Mine: A Complete Unknown’s biggest issue can be summed up by the character of Sylvie Russo, based on Dylan’s real-life paramour Suze Rotolo — famously the woman featured on the album cover for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, but an artist, activist, and writer in her own right.

As the fictional Sylvie, Elle Fanning is fully engaged throughout, but the scenes with her character pull the movie into the biopic tropes it otherwise largely avoids. It’s more than fair to bring up that a musical artist might have issues when it comes to his relationships with women, but despite the mentions of the very cool and interesting life she’s already leading, Fanning’s role in the movie often descends into the nag who doesn’t understand.

This really comes out when Bob invites Sylvie to come with him to Newport ’65, only adding to the chaos of those events. It’s depicted as the true end of their relationship after an earlier breakup, though she ends up feeling like a superfluous character, as her presence in those scenes does nothing more than to remind the audience of how toxic their relationship was. It’s especially unnecessary when you consider that there’s no clear evidence the real Suze was ever at Newport.

The Verdict: The title of this movie couldn’t be a better encapsulation of not just Dylan as a figure of mystery, but the impossibility of the music biopic as a genre. A difficult relationship with a Woman Who Just Doesn’t Understand isn’t the only trope that makes it into A Complete Unknown (there’s a literal Hard Day’s Night-style running-from-the-fans moment, as another example).

These tropes don’t undercut any of the performances, but do keep the movie from feeling as fresh as it could. Yet such tropes are hard to avoid, because the thing about telling stories about our greatest artists is that they often have a lot in common. A Complete Unknown manages to avoid the worst of it not just with its focus on a set time period, but more importantly with its acceptance of the fact that for a figure like this, we’re never really meant to understand the full scope of the man he is. Because it doesn’t matter if we understand Bob Dylan or not. We just need to appreciate what he did.

Where to Watch: A Complete Unknown arrives in theaters on December 25th.

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