In “A Complete Unknown,” nominated for eight academy awards and starring an enigmatic Timothée Chalamet-who plays the mysterious and stubborn rockstar Bob Dylan, “A Complete Unknown,” directed by James Mangold, depicts the mysterious and almost hypnotizing genius of Bob Dylan and his coming up journey that captures his experiences as a folk singer before his transformation into a cultural icon. The question is: does the film truly capture the spirit of arguably one of the greatest songwriters of all time or does it fall short in depicting the true nature of Bob’s life?
The film begins in 1961 with an inspired and eager Bob Dylan as he arrives in New York, guitar case in hand, and mind full of ideas. We follow him through his journey of meeting love interests, his hero’s, band mates, and navigating the tricks of stardom and determining whether it’s more important to be who others want you to be in order to succeed or if it’s better to create your own path and stray from the box you’ve been placed in. In the film’s timeline, we visit pivotal moments in Bob Dylan’s life such as him meeting his idol, Woody Guthrie, who helps him define his own voice as a social activist in the time of panic surrounding the Cuban missile crisis and looming threat of the Cold War.
The release of his hit song Blowin in the Wind which propelled him to fame, and playing at the Newport folk festival alongside Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and his soon to be beloved electric guitar. The plot touches on so many crucial moments in his life that, although some are fictitious, really give you a look into what shaped Bob Dylan to be the man and musician he came to be. Overall, the pace of the movie was perfect to follow and to my delight, didn’t have a lull of a moment anywhere in it.
The main characters in this included Bob Dylan, played by Timothée Chalamet (brilliantly to say the least), Sylvie Russo who was played by Elle Fanning (although not a real person in Bob’s life but based off of his real on and off girlfriend at the time named Suze Rotolo) who was one of his first acquaintances in New York and remained a part of Bob’s life throughout the movie, Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, who was a long time music partner of Bob who always had a flirtatious dynamic with him although never growing anything serious out of it. Along with that, we see Pete Seeger, played by Edward Norton, who was a fellow musician and the man who helped mentor Dylan into the spotlight.
The acting in this movie was beyond phenomenal and was so realistic that it was difficult to distinguish the character from the actor. Specifically, Timothée in his role as Bob. In preparation for the role, Chalamet picked up his guitar and harmonica and learned to fully play 13 of Bob Dylan’s original songs in the movie (the talent of which he showcased as his Oscar nominated performance). To any Bob Dylan fan or even someone completely new to his music, if you were to compare Timothées’ vocal techniques in singing combined with the accent he uses, it’s almost a perfect replica of Bob’s own voice.
Bob Dylan, who isn’t known to be the most amiable of people, was portrayed as nearly a carbon copy by Chalamet. With this, as Dylan was thrown further into stardom, developing pretentious habits like wearing sunglasses inside and increasing the severity of his god complex (even saying in the movie at one point “But I am God?”)I genuinely started to dislike the character and actor because I couldn’t distinguish the two from each other, which is clearly a testament to how accurate Timothée’s portrayal of Dylan was.
Relationship wise, each person that entered Bob’s life came out a little more roughed up than they had been upon entering. Sylvie Russo is the prime example of this as her relationship with Bob reflects his cold and callous nature at times. The same story applies to other familiars like Joan or Pete in which he can be seen as a sensitive poet who holds his circle close and on a dime he’ll revert to his self preserving, standoffish style, putting on his sunglasses back on and lighting up another cigarette.
Initially based on the nonfiction “A Complete Unknown” by Elijah Wall, the movie written by and directed by Mangold, nods to biographical elements and shapes them into a journey that engulfs the audience into the world Bob Dylan knew. Although this movie won’t serve as a documentary with all of the fictitious elements floating around in it, it is a seamless and representative narrative of not only Bob Dylan’s life but the trials and tribulations of everyday life at this time are seen from the bigger picture. The effects that social and political issues like civil rights and nuclear threats had on Dylan’s music are not lost on the audience as Mangold successfully helps the narrative of this time in Dylans life remain intact.
From the beginning of the movie in which we see Bob Dylan step out of the taxi in New York City with a rugged look and acoustic guitar in hand to the end in his dark sunglasses, sharp suit, and electric Stratocaster, we see the arc of Bob’s rebellion. Initially he finds his place in the popularized folk scene with its protesting banjos and fluid movement but as the film progresses, Bob finds himself with the same resisting message but in a different scene: the world of rock and roll.
With the Beatles, the Kinks, and other boy band rockers popping up, the electric rock scene was becoming popularized and Bob couldn’t help but become drawn to it like a moth to a burning hot flame. Against his inner circle’s advice, Bob made the daring switch to this genre in the mid to late 60s and continued on with it in his later albums. His switch from a safer and complacent genre to another that was about upset and rebellion is a genius parallel to his own internal struggle of remaining inside the box that others have built for you or making the way to the path that’s true to you. In the end it’s obvious which path he chose and despite the backlash he received at the time, many venerated him for it, taking back their previous hatred.
Although his backstory remains a mystery and the genius of where his songs come from are still unknown (and in his cryptic fashion, if asked that question, he’d reply that “they want to know why the songs came to me and not them”) this fictitious film with healthy doses of biographical elements beautifully illustrates the imaginative and sometimes remote mind of Bob Dylan and throws the viewer head first into the world of “A Complete Unknown.”
