‘A Complete Unknown’: Review

Dir: James Mangold. US. 2024. 140mins 

For more than 60 years, the thing that has enthralled fans of Bob Dylan — besides the magic of his music and the length of his remarkable career —is his fascinating unknowability. No popular artist of his era has been so enigmatic, so perpetually mysterious. James Mangold’s riveting biopic gets at that essential truth, backed by a formidable performance from Timothee Chalamet as the influential singer-songwriter during a pivotal period in his career from the early-to-mid-1960s.

Manages to illuminate precisely what makes Dylan’s opaqueness captivating

Yet A Complete Unknown is far from a fawning portrait, as the Walk The Line director dissects Dylan’s artistic genius while simultaneously examining the ways in which he could be cruel and capricious — especially to those who loved him. Following the singer as he conquers the American folk scene, then infuriates it by deciding to ’go electric’, the film manages to illuminate precisely what makes Dylan’s opaqueness so captivating. 

Opening on Christmas Day in the US and January 17 in the UK, A Complete Unknown should attract Dylan devotees, even those who may be leery of another cinematic treatment following Todd Haynes’ experimental, audacious 2007 picture I’m Not There. Mangold’s film is a more traditional biopic, but by largely sidestepping the genre’s cliches — not to mention featuring superb supporting turns from Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro — this looks to be a sturdy commercial performer and awards player.

Chalamet plays Dylan in 1961 as he has just recently moved to New York from Minnesota, a 19 year-old nobody hoping to make his name. Visiting his hospitalised ailing hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) and befriending Pete Seeger (Norton), the elder statesman of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Dylan quickly wows locals with his poetic lyrics and transfixing songs. Soon, though, he is ensnared in two romantic relationships — one with artist Sylvie Russo (Fanning) and one with fellow folk singer Joan Baez (Barbaro) — although he seems more interested in following his artistic and career ambitions than committing to either woman.

The rock legend, now 83, has had no shortage of films dedicated to him, including the 2003 musical drama Masked And Anonymous, not to mention the documentaries: Don’t Look Back and Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home. to name but two. But A Complete Unknown is the first straightforward Dylan biopic, and Chalamet channels the singer impressively . Many can imitate Dylan’s nasal delivery, but the actor goes deeper, conveying the arrogance, wit and disarming soulfulness of this musical prodigy. Chalamet sings classic Dylan tunes with urgency and vulnerability, embodying what was, at one time, revolutionary about songs such as ‘Blowin’ In The Wind,’ ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ and ‘Like A Rolling Stone.’ 

But A Complete Unknown never shies away from the burgeoning star’s more detestable, immature behaviour. Fanning and Barbaro are excellent as fully-formed female characters who are much more than simple love interests. Russo, based on Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo, is magnetised by Dylan’s charisma and talent, but she eventually grows tired of his restlessness. Fanning plays her as an impressionable woman trying to find herself, easily swept up in his feverish current, but illustrating how that initial lack of self-confidence slowly gives way to the realisation that he’ll never love her the way she loves him.

Barbaro is a revelation as Baez, a much more successful artist than Dylan when enters her orbit, her powerful voice and delicate manner its own arresting force. Chalamet has combustible chemistry with both women, but he plays Dylan as a man just always out of reach — there, but not quite there —and the film’s sympathy is with those he burned along the way. 

Featuring handsome production design by Francois Audouy, the biopic occasionally fudges facts and falls into the trap of similar music portraits, becoming a cursory highlight reel of memorable career moments. But Mangold wisely leaves Dylan something of an unsolvable riddle, his desire to push creative boundaries and impulsively start (or end) relationships all part of an indescribable longing to forge his own path. 

That willfulness led to an incredible legacy but also a lot of broken hearts – including Seeger’s, who viewed the young man as folk music’s great hope to reach the mainstream and change society with progressive politics. But Dylan refuses to be held down by anyone, and Norton’s compassionate portrayal suggests another person betrayed by the tempestuous icon. A Complete Unknown will remind the faithful why they’ve cared about Dylan’s music all their lives — but it will also serve as a warning that there was a price to be paid for those who dared to get too close to him.