It is Christmas season, which means that ‘tis the season for a Timothee Chamalet movie, but instead of “Wonka” (2023), he stars in “A Complete Unknown” (2024), a biopic about Bob Dylan from 1961 when he met his hero, Woody Guthrie, until 1965 when he played at the Newport Folk Festival. It is an adaptation of music journalist and Cambridge resident Elijah Wald’s 2015 book, “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties.” It is James Mangold’s most recent film.
If you are not into Bob Dylan, why should you see “A Complete Unknown?” If you are a fan of the ensemble cast, the lemon is worth the squeeze. Chalamet fans will not need convincing, but the elfin man disappears into the role and nails Dylan’s physicality and signature vocals. Some Dylan fans even confided in hushed tones than he may even sound better than the original. He also plays well with others and cedes the spotlight to other stellar performances. Edward Norton surprises as Pete Seeger, a wholesome father and folk music evangelist who is eager to promote Dylan into stardom. Scoot McNairy, who played the father in “Speak No Evil” (2024), has a challenging anchor role as Guthrie at his lowest physical point, the shining beacon to Dylan—a man not given to reverence, respect or adulation. Boyd Holbrook, who appeared earlier this year in “The Bikeriders,” is unrecognizable as Dylan’s pen pal and cheerleader, Johnny Cash, which is a neat sidequel to “Walk the Line” (2005), Mangold’s prior music biopic. Elle Fanning, who needs no introduction, plays Sylvie Russo, a thinly disguised Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s first girlfriend in New York.
If you do not give a hoot about the cast, “A Complete Unknown” could also interest you if you want an entry level primer on the folk music scene and its major players. Politics and turbulent events provide the backdrop. While the film conveys the soothing effect of having Dylan’s music speaking directly to unfolding events, because Dylan does not allow himself to get carried away, it makes the historic events feel less urgent, and everyone as a little foolish for getting so worked up over nothing. Because contemporary audiences have the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to forget how crazy it must have felt though Mangold tried to communicate it. When singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) sees President Kennedy announcing the Cuban Missile Crisis, she rushes to escape the city like everyone else but stops when she hears Dylan playing in a basement café.
If you are not a Dylan fan or know little about the Nobel Prize winning songwriter, “A Complete Unknown” will not annoy you. It mostly is told from other people’s perspective of the artist as outsiders looking in, but he is a bit of a laconic cypher. Everyone else functions normally, and he is obsessed with writing lyrics. Mangold pulls no punches and often depicts him as a complete jerk. Baez is the quickest one to call him out on his crap. Chalamet plays him cold, calculating and aloof. Even without the explicit dialogue highlighting his ambition, it is obvious in the way that he navigates the industry and quickly becomes a diva before he makes it.
Mangold’s camera movements get a little dull with repetition though he deserves applause for allowing songs to play fully without a ton of editing and cuts to disrupt the experience—looking at you, “Wicked” (2024). His work is at its strongest when he uses the movement as a punchline. When Dylan starts to act differently in the recording studio, the camera quickly pans from Dylan on the left to the sound booth to gauge the reaction of the sound engineers. There are plenty of moments like that where Mangold treats the camera like a curious moviegoer who wants to see more. It has a comedic effect that keeps the movie light and gives it a spring to its step.
“A Complete Unknown” has a few scene stealers that almost deserve their own movie. Norbert Leo Butz as the scheming agent Alan Lomax pops up when Seeger arrives at an inopportune time and functions as an understated punchline because his placement in the room answers the question of who is sleeping with Dylan. Big Bill Morganfield as Jesse, a Black guitarist who appears on Seeger’s television show, Rainbow Quest, will leave you wanting more and brings the movie alive in a way that the rest may not if you are not into folk music. Even though Jesse and Dylan sound as if they speak two different languages, they instantly connect, and Jesse is honestly more fun. Some sources list the character as Lead Belly, not Jesse, but I heard Jesse.
Is it a spoiler if it is history? As depicted in “A Complete Unknown,” folk music is just supposed to be a voice and a simple instrument like a guitar so using machines is considered an abomination to the purists who founded the Newport Folk Festival, which is most of the denouement. Mangold seems to hint that one of those founders, Toshi (Eriko Hatsume), Seeger’s wife and a fellow founder, is not one of the purists or at least disagrees with how her fellow purists are reacting to Dylan disrupting the status quo. Dylan does not stop his rushed exit from the stage at her request, and Mangold never reveals what she thinks, which was incredibly frustrating. Her insight is invaluable because it is so different, and because she is the only woman onscreen to not have a romantic or sexual relationship with Dylan. With a two-hour twenty-one-minute runtime, a few extra seconds could be spared to give Toshi a moment to do more than stand beside her husband adoringly, especially since it would expand insight into reception of Dylan’s work.
Is “A Complete Unknown” an effective gateway drug to learning more about Dylan or listen to his music? Not necessarily. If you leave the movie without getting into the music, then the interest will evaporate when the credits roll. By empathizing more with the people who surround Dylan and how impossible it is for them to sustain closeness with him, Mangold’s film never feels as if it succeeds in creating the illusion that moviegoers know Dylan and does not feel like the definitive fictional work on Dylan’s life. It omits his drug use and only covers around five years of his life. The real-life Dylan is still performing. Books may be the only way to get a more comprehensive feel for the artist.
The man is not even dead yet, and there are so many movies about him, which can be a turn off for some, but as a social historical phenomenon, Dylan as a subject may pique your interest. There are at least twelve other movies about Dylan if you want to have a marathon with the top fictional entry being “I’m Not There” (2007), Todd Haynes’ experimental biopic with different actors playing Dylan, including Cate Blanchett. Martin Scorsese’s documentary, “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan” (2005), is considered the definitive work on the 1961-1966 period, which is a year longer than this movie’s narrative so it may be the best one for viewers who want to compare Mangold’s film to reality. Other documentaries like “Festival (1967), “Eat the Document” (1972), which Dylan directed, “Don’t Look Back” (1967), “65 Revisited” (2007), and “The Other Side of the Mirror” (2007) cover live musical performances. Other films like “Hearts of Fire” (1987), a drama which Dylan acted in, and “Masked and Anonymous” (2003), which Dylan wrote and acted in, are more creative projects from the artist himself, not to be confused with a strictly biographical text. “Renaldo and Clara” (1978), which Dylan directed and starred in and Scorsese’s “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese” (2019), which includes clips from the prior, is a mix of fact and fiction. Dylan also makes a cameo in “Catchfire” (1990).
“A Complete Unknown” is going to be a crowd pleaser because Dylan still has plenty of fans, but it is ultimately a slight movie that holds no surprises and fails to convey a depth of emotion with lessons applicable to anyone other than the people from the past. If great performances and perfect period pieces are enough to satisfy you, then this film is for you.
