Director James Mangold returns to biopics on musical artists with his new film A Complete Unknown. The movie follows the early years of a young Bob Dylan, portrayed by Timothée Chalamet.
Despite the film’s straightforward formula for humanizing this legendary musician, A Complete Unknown excels in focusing on Dylan more as a rising artist than on his personal life.
Mangold has tackled other famous artists like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, so seeing him diving deep into another like Bob Dylan seems like something up his wheelhouse.
In every one of his films, he has managed to adapt his filmmaking style to different genres. What the director does great in these films is creating the atmosphere around the main protagonist to make audiences feel like they are in that place and time.
A Complete Unknown takes place between 1961 and 1965 as we find Bob Dylan as a struggling musician looking to make a name for himself in the folk music scene. Dylan is an artist who has continuously evolved with his music over the years, so seeing where he got his start is something that audiences may end up investing in.
Thanks to the incredible performance by Timothée Chalamet, the actor completely disappears into the role of the legendary artist.
The movie takes the safe route in showing Dylan evolving as an artist. However, it does take some chances in showing the ups and downs he faced while starting as one.
It allows the audience to see him frequently perform in many of the bars in the underground scene before becoming a big-time folk musician. It also allows viewers to witness how he makes the transition from using traditional instruments to electronic ones, which completely changes the landscape of his music to the detriment of his colleagues and fans.
The film doesn’t go too into specifics on Dylan’s background or where he came from, maintaining that mysterious allure of him as an artist. The story doesn’t rely too heavily on his personal life, but rather, on his music and how it shaped the music industry forever.
It shows Dylan realizing that instead of being bogged down by the higher-ups on what he plays, he can decide what his music can be, even if not everyone would follow along with it.
It would have been nice to see more of where Dylan came from to better understand him as a person and why he made certain changes in his music. There are fragments of that told throughout the movie but nothing more to elaborate on it. To make up for it, the film shows the other people in Dylan’s life who helped shape him into the man he becomes later in life.
One of the great things to take out of the film is the aesthetic and production design, which teleport us into the early ’60s. We see how New York was during that time with the fashion and the landscape of the city. The look and feel of it resonates with the times through the warm colors through the lens.
Even seeing the Newport Music Festival being recreated in that time just immerses us in that music scene.
The cast surrounding Chalamet brings in enough story to invest in some of these historical figures who shaped Dylan’s life for better or worse. Monica Barbaro stands out with her portrayal as Joan Baez, sharing some chemistry with Chalamet, showcasing their turbulent on-off relationship.
The same would go for Elle Fanning, whose character is based on Suze Rotolo, known for being Dylan’s girlfriend at the time during the start of his career.
Edward Norton also shines with his performance as Pete Seeger, one of the founders of the Newport Music Festival and a mentor to Dylan. His calm personality with Dylan constantly evolves as he sees Dylan’s potential as a rising artist and where he stands after a conscious decision by Dylan that changes the trajectory of his music and career.
It is perhaps one of the defining relationships that help audiences understand what is going through Dylan’s mind.
The soundtrack is also done well as most of the actors performed these classic songs live. It is great to see Chalamet embody Dylan not just as a person but as an artist by singing these beautiful songs while playing the guitar and harmonica. The same can be said about Barbaro and Norton, who each got to perform and record their songs live. Even Boyd Holbrook’s take on Johnny Cash is very well done in performance.
Overall, A Complete Unknown is a pretty standard biopic that is well-made. It is thanks to Chalamet’s performance that Dylan is fully brought to life on screen. The film further proves Chalamet’s prowess as an actor.
Mangold still enamors us with his style to create a 60s vibe that feels like a concert being performed in front of us. Even if it fails to connect us with Dylan, the movie is more about the people around him who helped shape his future in music history.
A Complete Unknown will be available in theaters on December 25th.
