PLOT: Four years in the life of Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet), from his discovery by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) through his eventual rise to fame as a folk singer, through his controversial decision to go electric on the eve of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
REVIEW: It’s hard to accurately sum up just how much of a profound effect Bob Dylan had on pop culture. One of the greatest songwriters of all time, for sixty years now, Dylan’s been sitting at the top of the pantheon of music greats, but oddly enough, outside of Todd Haynes’s impressionistic ode to his legend – I’m Not There, and a series of documentaries by Martin Scorsese, no one’s ever tried to tell his story as a traditional biopic until now. Sporting an impeccably assembled cast, James Mangold’s made an excellent companion piece to his own Walk the Line in that it’s another stunning screen depiction of one of the giants of 20th-century music.
While musical biopics are a genre unto themselves at this point (brilliantly satirized in Walk Hard), Mangold’s movies are distinct in how contained they are. Walk the Line tackled Johnny Cash’s career up until the seventies, while A Complete Unknown’s focus is even more specific, tackling the first four years of Dylan’s career. It’s a wise choice, as Dylan’s life story is so rich that Mangold if he wants to, could make a whole slew of sequels, and given how perfect Timothee Chalamet is in the lead, I’d be game.
For years now, it’s been obvious that as far as the rising crop of new stars goes, Chalamet is the real deal. He makes for a perfect Dylan, with him channelling the man’s iconic appearance and voice without ever coming off like he’s doing a caricature. By narrowing the focus to Dylan’s early years, Chalamet never has to deal with cumbersome prosthetics to evoke an aging star. Instead, it is a portrait of Dylan’s rise to prominence as a young man.
Mangold, who co-wrote the film with Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York, Strange Days, Silence), based the film on Elijah Wald’s well-regarded book, “Dylan Goes Electric”, which was raved about by Dylan himself. The film resists ever becoming pure hagiography, with it not shying away from the fact that Dylan, at the time, could be ruthless in his ambition and also callous with the people he loved.
Much of the film revolves around his relationships with four key figures. The first is Woody Guthrie, played by Scoot McNairy (in a nearly silent performance) as the folk singer suffered from Huntington’s disease and was nearly forgotten as he wasted away in a sanitarium. Next is Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger, another folk great who, while supportive of Dylan, also realizes that his devotion to folk and its ideals doesn’t appeal to his protege as the latter’s fame starts to grow.
Then there’s Dylan’s two love affairs. He initially falls for Elle Fanning’s Sylvie, forever immortalized on the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” only to have his head turned by Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez. Like Chalamet, she does her own singing and has a number of show-stopping numbers that will hopefully send younger viewers of the movie to Spotify, where they can discover more of Baez’s work.
Certainly, the film’s heart revolves around the clash between Dylan and Seeger, with Norton heartbreaking as the kindly folk singer who’s perhaps too idealistic to understand Dylan’s need to be his own man. Everyone is terrific, including Boyd Holbrook, who plays Johnny Cash (taking over from Joaquin Phoenix), as he plays a supporting part in Dylan’s rise to fame as one of his most trusted contemporaries.
Through it all, Mangold’s film, which is quickly paced, is thoroughly entertaining and really gives you an appreciation for Dylan’s craft and importance, with the film packed with impressively mounted performances of his most essential songs. A Complete Unknown should do what Walk the Line did: it will expose Dylan’s music to a younger audience, as the film plays well to Dylan aficionados, more casual fans (such as myself) and even those who’ve never heard of him. It’s one of the year’s most entertaining movies, with Mangold’s film so good that I hope he’s got a few Dylan sequels in him, as it truly left me wanting more.