As someone with only a basic knowledge of Bob Dylan, I can’t say I came away from A Complete Unknown with much more of an understanding of the man, his music, or his cultural significance. Not that such things need to be the ultimate goal of a biopic. Yet unlike, say, I’m Not There—Todd Haynes’ unconventional, fictional take on Dylan as a cultural force, with multiple actors playing the musician—this offers no formal or intellectual intrigue either. Director James Mangold, who also made the middling, Joaquin Phoenix-starring Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, condenses the time frame this time around, but still offers a rote succession of events—some iconic, some not—as if random pages had been plucked from a much fuller text. (The screenplay, by Mangold and Jay Cocks, is adapted from the 2015 Elijah Wald book Dylan Goes Electric!) As the man himself, Timothee Chalamet does enough to suggest he could anchor a really good Dylan biopic. Capturing both Dylan’s obfuscating mumbling and his piercingly direct musicality, Chalamet creates a central personality conflict: his Dylan is a heavy-lidded, introverted observer who blurts out the (often inconvenient) truth when pushed into a corner—or when a guitar is in his hands. That’s what catches the admiring attention of the likes of Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) early on and also what gets him in trouble when he insists on playing an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The latter event means to serve as the movie’s momentous climax, but it mostly registers as a pissing contest between a rock brat and a bunch of stodgy old men.
(1/7/2025)
