Directed by James Mangold (LOGAN; Ford v Ferrari) — Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks.
Set in the early-to-mid 1960s, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown follows a young musician named Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) who, in a New Jersey hospital, meets his music idol, Woody Guthrie (played by Scoot McNairy), who is suffering from Huntington’s disease. Dylan impresses Woody and fellow musician Pete Seeger (played by Edward Norton) with a song dedicated to Guthrie, and, as a result, Seeger invites Dylan to stay in his home. As the two become fast friends, Seeger starts to introduce Dylan to the folk music scene, and soon, he becomes the target of the industry. Although Dylan makes a name for himself with folk music and protest songs, he gradually starts to struggle with being considered solely as a folk musician.
I won’t play pretend and claim that I know more about Bob Dylan than I do (to be frank, I grew up in a household with more love for Elvis, Johnny Cash, the Beatles, and Queen), but I do like quite a few of his songs. For instance, like I presume most people do, I think very highly of “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” However, as I don’t know all that much about the enigmatic artist that this film revolves around, I found this to be a very effective introduction to him and his influence. But, as others have said, I don’t really feel like I know all that much more about him after having seen the film, which, to be fair, may have been intentional. Still, its plot is very limited or sparse given its ballooning runtime, which is song-heavy and story-light — though I’ve no doubt that people more familiar with him got more out of it on first viewing than I possibly could. I will say that, I found it slightly odd that, for a film about an artist who created some of the most iconic protest songs, the film itself had so little to say.
It’s interesting that with this ‘music biopic,’ Mangold opted for only a small portion of Dylan’s career rather than condensing a huge career, which many biopics tend to do. I think it really works in the film’s favor, despite the fact that it does sometimes feel… ‘aimless’ is a harsher word than I intend it to be, but it does kind of describe it. Although, yes, it’s a different approach to a music biopic, it isn’t without its tropes with the ‘ups and downs of an artist’ and ‘industry individuals trying to control the artist and their output’ being familiar elements. That said, I still found it to be quite enjoyable. It’s a nice music-heavy package that looks terrific and Mangold is an expert at delivering. The wonderful performances also help a lot. Chalamet said he was reaching for greatness, and you can tell. It’s the kind of full-bodied movie star biopic work that you go to the movies for, but he’s also surrounded by excellence as Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton (probably his best performance in, at least, nine or ten years), and Boyd Holbrook (I could watch an entire film with Timothee and Boyd just talking) are all also so good that you can’t take your eyes off them. I’ll also throw in a special shoutout to Scoot McNairy, who gets a lot out of very little screentime.
7.9 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 