There’s a great contradiction within Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s entertaining folk music drama, A Complete Unknown. Here’s Dylan, looking like a boy band member who went down a James Dean rabbit hole, and with his stirring anti-war, anti-capitalist lyrics captured the mood of a generation in the 1960s. He was saying what the young people wanted to hear; giving them what they wanted in songs such as “The Times They Are A-Changin'”. And yet, he didn’t want to actually give them what they wanted. He never wanted to be whatever the demands of the folk music scene needed him to be. When pressed on what he actually wanted to be, Dylan’s answer is “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.”
But that’s also sorta the point of Mangold’s movie. Bob Dylan is a walking contradiction, and also a wildly gifted lyricist, a musical savant, a mercurial lover, and a devoted friend…up to a point. He was so many things and yet nobody has a definitive take on who he is which is why Hollywood keeps pumping out movies trying to figure him out.
Mangold’s is the best that I’ve seen by far, in that it is a traditional biopic that focuses on a specific moment in Dylan’s life. It’s a smart move by Mangold, who took a similar approach to his equally excellent Johnny Cash/June Carter biopic Walk the Line. Mangold just has a knack for telling these stories of enigmatic musical geniuses and presenting them in such a way that we all can find something to relate to. I’m no Dylan fan, nor am I really into folk music, but was fascinated by the culture, the sound, and the incredibly talented people who Dylan surrounded himself with.
The film focuses on the first four years of Dylan’s career. As the title suggests, he entered the Greenwich Village folk music scene as a complete unknown, although the title actually comes from his lyrics for “Like A Rolling Stone.” Mangold, who penned the screenplay with Jay Cocks based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric”, does his best not to fall into hero worship, something other Dylan films often fail to do. He doesn’t sand down Dylan’s rough edges. He begins as a fan of fading icon Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who Dylan visits in the hospital as the legend is wasting away from Huntington’s Disease. As Dylan’s talent begins to catch attention from others, including another legend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), his ambition grows to match it and so does his need to stand apart from the pack. That leads to some harsh conflicts, not only with Seeger but others who have managed to get close to Dylan, in itself no easy task.
Of course, this period of Dylan’s life is greatly impacted by his two key lovers. Elle Fanning plays Sylvie (a stand-in for Suzie Rotolo), a free-spirited artist who influenced Dylan’s music, but also partially drove his need to more of an individual. Then there’s Joan Baez, played wonderfully by Monica Barbaro, a contemporary that Dylan fell head over heels for even though her talents seemed to threaten him a little bit. He couldn’t help belittling her ability to connect with crowds, a gift he also possessed in spades.
It’s easy to mock Chalamet but if you haven’t caught on to the fact that he’s a tremendous multi-faceted performer by now then A Complete Unknown will change your mind. Embodying Dylan without leaning into caricature, Chalamet also performs the songs and does so more than capably. Barbaro and Norton do so as well, displaying levels of skill we either didn’t know they had or had forgotten they possessed. It also shows the amount of trust between Mangold and his cast, which comes across in their committed performances. Everyone in this huge ensemble is terrific, including Dan Fogler as manager Al Grossman, Eriko Hatsune as Toshi Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, one of Dylan’s strongest supporters for doing things his own way.
And that is ultimately what A Complete Unknown becomes about; Dylan doing his own thing. The central conflict finds Dylan embracing a new sound, employing electric guitars in his music, which puts him in conflict with Seeger who is desperately trying to keep folk music relevant. The wedge driven between the two friends is tragic, as Dylan crudely strikes out on his own and Seeger, so gentle and kind at all times, tries to stay true to folk music’s sound and virtues.
Walk the Line earned multiple awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Oscar nominations for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, hers ending with a victory. We could easily see A Complete Unknown equal or surpass those accolades, with Chalamet a shoe-in for notices. The film goes a long way in keeping you entertained dramatically and musically. The soundtrack is incredible and sure to see Dylan’s music spike in sales over the coming months. But the most important thing A Complete Unknown accomplishes is to be appealing to die-hard Dylan fans, casual listeners, and newbies like myself. Dylan is still an enigma at the end of the movie, as he is now sixty years later. But what a fascinating enigma he is!
Searchlight Pictures opens A Complete Unknown on Christmas Day.
