Bob Dylan is one of the most influential figures in music history. He was first made famous singing folk music in the 1960s. However, in 1965, he made a bold transition from playing folk to electric music, which sparked a significant, yet controversial, turning point in his career. “A Complete Unknown” is a movie that shows how Dylan’s career began and how he made the transition to making electrical music after playing folk music for so long.
Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet, who recently stared as Paul Atreides in the two “Dune” movies. “A Complete Unknown” was both written and directed by James Mangold who previously directed “Logan,” “Ford v. Ferrari” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The leading talent of this film paired with the great music of Dylan seems like an amazing collaboration. Unfortunately, the film’s plot leaves a lot more to be desired, which overshadows the otherwise stunning acting and musical performances.
“A Complete Unknown” starts in 1961. Dylan has just made it to New York and meets Pete Seeger, played by Edward Norton, who starts him on his journey of playing folk music. In the scene where they first meet, they are in a hospital room with Dylan’s music hero Woody Guthrie. Guthrie, who is only shown in a hospital bed, physically incapacitated by Huntington’s disease and only able to communicate through subtle movement, is played brilliantly by Scoot McNairy. The way McNairy portrays Guthrie so meticulously makes his performance deserving of acknowledgement.
Norton and Chalamet play off each other greatly and play their roles well. Chalamet appeared to have taken the same approach that Austin Butler took playing Elvis Presley in the movie “Elvis” as Chalamet used a heavy Minnesotan accent that resembled more of Dylan than himself. The acting was not the only thing that shined, as every actor’s musical performance was top notched.
Highlights included Chalamet’s cover of “The Times They Are a Changin’” and the cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” sung by Boyd Holbrook playing Johnny Cash. Every shot in the movie looked great as well, really showing off the ‘60s New York aesthetic that is present throughout the story.
However, outside of looking and sounding good, the movie does not have much to offer. The story of this movie spans the first five years of Dylan’s career. It starts with him being forced to record mostly cover songs for his debut album and his frustrations that come with that. From there, audiences end up seeing Dylan being secretive about his past with his girlfriend Sylvie before he ends up singing with female folk musician, Joan Baez played by Monica Barbaro, and having an affair with her.
The movie then jumps ahead to 1965 where Dylan is shown at the height of his career but fed up with how the folk music industry is treating him, while also out with another girl. It feels like this movie was more focused on Dylan’s troubling relationships with both folk music and women rather than the defining moments in his career. It also does not help that the women characters are not developed and are not given great moments of dialogue to help the audience to care about them. This subplot takes up a lot of time, but those five years end up doing very little as far as telling Dylan’s story.
There is a scene in the movie where Dylan is writing a letter to Cash, and Dylan tells him about how he is now paranoid because of the fame he has gained. How “it snuck up” on him and “pulverized” him. In a way, that is how it feels watching his career barely get started and then flash forward to when it is at its peak. Even the moment when Dylan plays electrical music, though it should be this significant moment, the movie fails to build up to that point.
Overall, “A Complete Unknown” is by no means a bad movie, as it is a well performed and beautifully crafted film in its designs, visuals and music. However, if fans are looking for a film that will inform them on how Dylan became as well-known as he is today, this is not the movie for them. This is a movie that will leave fans underwhelmed with its hollow plotting of Dylan’s career. This film leaves audiences with more questions than answers since it skips over significant moments in between plot points. At least the music was great, because otherwise watching the movie would have been dull, like a rolling stone.
