A Complete Unknown: The Bob Dylan Biopic Without Bite

BY: CO-NEWS EDITOR / ISABELA RANGEL

A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold

As with any traditional rock biopic, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown arrives equipped with all the quirks: the dimly lit streets of 1960s New York City, grainy shots of smoke-filled music venues, and, of course, a young, shaggy-haired, angsty musician, who this time happens to be none other than Bob Dylan.

And again, as with many aspiring rock biopics, it had hoped to be an expository portrait of Dylan’s early years, unraveling the man who rewrote the rules of rock and folk music and shedding light on his origins as a gritty midwestern kid trying to make it in his industry. Did the film accomplish all of this? Sure. Did it accomplish this before I fell asleep in front of my TV? Not exactly.

While A Complete Unknown had hoped to be the flashy, breakout biopic of the season, it instead strolled onto the scene at its own lazy pace, meandering like a singer not quite in timing with the music— great vocals, all carefully arranged, but ultimately falling flat and out of tune.

This isn’t to say the movie lacked talent. Timothee Chalamet, our leading man, confidently takes on the rugged role of Bob Dylan and does this commendably, stepping into his scuffed boots and donning the uniform of the young folk singer to deliver one of his best acting performances to date. Chalamet embodies a young artist’s restlessness, sauntering through the movie with his guitar in one hand and a cigarette in the other. 

He plays the character with a meticulous balance of imitation and personification, with the film itself focusing solely on the first few years of Dylan’s career. This in itself arguably makes this a harder role to bring to life, as this approach focuses on a time when this up-and-coming artist was both unfocused and barely approachable.

 If anything, A Complete Unknown confirms what we already know: Timothee Chalamet sure can act, and he rises to this challenge by fully embodying Bob Dylan, down to the grungy mannerisms and his mumbled and slightly incoherent lines. Chalamet was given a hard job, yes, and the audience was given an even harder job of trying to understand what he was saying.

Aside from the biopic’s starring man, the film was also upheld by a supporting cast that was

overall solid, but only when given the chance to stand out of Chalamet’s shadow (which was rarely.) Elle Fanning plays Sylvie Russo, a characterized stand-in for Suze Rotolo, who was Bob Dylan’s girlfriend. 

She was also a musician, but since the movie did little to emphasize that and focused solely on the fact that she was a girlfriend to Bob Dylan, I won’t elaborate. And as Bob Dylan’s girlfriend, Fanning did well. She laughed, frowned, stared yearningly out of a window when it was appropriate to. Even Dylan’s idols, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) were reduced to a sort of wise and all-knowing counselors, two rockstars who were portrayed as mere stepping stones for Dylan.

Elle Fanning and Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Unknown

Overall, the entire cast delivered a strong and notable performance, bringing as much depth to their roles as the script allowed for. But is a great performance enough to completely salvage a movie that plays out like walking through a museum exhibit? 

With 141 minutes of run-time, the film dawdles along in no rush, testing the patience of both an eager young Bob Dylan and the actual audience. A two-and-a-half-hour duration wouldn’t even typically be a notable complaint if the movie wasn’t frustratingly sluggish. The film lethargically moves through each minute, dragging its feet like a teenage boy who was just told to do his chores. Minutes-long scenes of quiet singing and repeated pans of one’s face begin to feel simply indulgent when it’s what the film is entirely comprised of. Its pacing almost mimics Bob Dylan’s younger and untethered self, but there is a fine line between thoughtful moments and just plain motionless storytelling that does little to move a plot along.

Now, this does not mean that every scenic shot went completely unappreciated. Phedon Papamichael’s work on the cinematography happens to simultaneously be one of the key stand-out factors of the movie that was worth noting. The camera work was essential in setting the tone of the film, capturing the essence and possibilities of 1960s New York City with shots of the scrappy, dream-filled streets of the West Village. The music, obviously, was another considerable aspect of the film, with Chalamet’s impressive covers of Dylan’s earlier work. It was a coin toss, really, as to whether or not each performance scene would either excite the plot or keep viewers in the theater for an extra 20 minutes. 

There are a few, fleeting moments where the movie threatens to give way to a more dynamic plot, such as when Dylan breaks through with Columbia Records. We are also graced with another brief thrill when he decides to switch out his acoustic repertoire for something a little more electric. But these moments are few and far between, and sadly smothered with the languid pacing that’s consistent throughout the movie.

For all of its attention to detail—the unique mannerisms of the 60’s, the tension behind a musical revolution, and the human relationships throughout it all—the film ultimately falls short of its expectations. Traditional rock biopics should be thrilling, tense balancing acts of raw talent and competition, and we were just lucky enough to have Timothee Chalamet preserve that exhilarating time in Bob Dylan’s career, script be damned. 

At the end of it all, A Complete Unknown was neither groundbreaking nor disastrous…it was simply just there. It’s a decently executed film, sonically and visually, with a cast that delivered the best they could with a script that lacked as much energy as this one.

But when it comes to telling the story of an artist who led a musical revolution, you would at least expect the film to partially follow in his fast-paced, trailblazing footsteps. After all, if I had wished to be bored while learning about Bob Dylan’s life, I would have just read his Wiki page.

2.5/5 Stars