Sometimes, a film looks good on paper. Right now, Timothée Chalamet‘s presence in a cast makes a movie look pretty darn good. The young actor has played Willy Wonka, Paul Atreides and many more in between. He’s on a heck of a roll. So, when he turned his attention to playing Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, the idea was intriguing. How would Chalamet throw himself into a portrayal of the eccentrically identifiable folk singer? Would A Complete Unknown a star in the making? Or should this one remain in the wings?
About A Complete Unknown
A Complete Unknown follows the life of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) as he rises to prominence in the New York folk music scene, beginning in the early 1960s and culminating in his iconic 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance. Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton, Scoot McNairy, Boyd Holbrook and Dan Fogler co-star in the movie. James Mangold directs A Complete Unknown from a script he co-wrote with Jay Cocks.
As mentioned, A Complete Unknown is receiving much of its word of mouth for one reason: Timothée Chalamet. The young actor has been on a fast rise over the last number of years, and the decision to cast him as the influential (and distinctive) singer is certainly an intriguing challenge. Could anyone stand toe to toe with a legend like Bob Dylan?
In the grand scheme of things, Chalamet is the bright spot in A Complete Unknown. He dives into Dylan’s complicated persona with both feet and even manages to sell the film’s singing … and there is a lot of it.
More Focus on the Music
In fact, it’s unfortunate more focus seems to have been placed on the music rather than the screenplay. If A Complete Unknown had been conceived as a concert film? Heck yes! As it stands, I would buy this soundtrack as is. Chalamet nails each and every song. Sadly, the resulting paper-thin script keeps the movie from letting us truly know any of the characters populating this world. They waste Elle Fanning. This, my friends, is a cardinal sin.
This film sets out to tell a historical narrative that is grounded in reality but somehow manages to completely neuter its supporting cast. No one is a supporting player in their own story, and A Complete Unknown owes Joan Baez, Suze Rotolo — heck, even Pete Seeger — an apology.
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These fascinating people who lived their own lives, managed their own careers and brought their own motivations to their interactions with Dylan during the early 1960s end up feeling like one-dimensional pawns.
The script’s simplified and dated construction has no interest in these people outside of their role in Dylan’s life. This could have been a riveting depiction of the Greenwich Village folk scene during the 1960s, but that takes a back seat to the construction of Bob Dylan’s misunderstood genius narrative. We’ve seen this before, and it’s not interesting.
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A Failed Examination
That said, it’s so strange that A Complete Unknown also fails to examine Bob Dylan beneath the familiar persona. We don’t see Bob Dylan “the man.” We briefly see Dylan as a hungry, young folk singer, but it doesn’t take long before he’s the established music star who wears sunglasses at night. This has the effect of not only shortchanging performers like Fanning and Barbaro but also hinders Chalamet. He’s a performer capable of far deeper work.
This isn’t to say Chalamet’s work in the film isn’t solid. It is! We all know how the Academy feels about a good rock and roll frontman biopic. Rami Malek carried the rather questionable Bohemian Rhapsody to Oscar gold. It seems a pity that A Complete Unknown never manages to show anything beyond the self-serious persona Dylan crafted himself. This man thinks he’s a poet and wears sunglasses at night. It’s very brooding and deep. Show us more.
If there’s humanity, feelings or any real struggle inside Dylan, we really don’t see them here. This film tells us he’s a poetic genius, but we see nothing beyond that. Chalamet’s portrayal seems to be honing in on his frustration as Dylan develops as a musician. No one understands him. He’s frustrated at being stuck in the folk music movement. However, this is all done through the “Bob Dylan” lens; the man underneath the persona is completely missing.
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Simplistic Vibe
It’s frustrating to see this simplistic vibe hang over the entire film. It must be wondered how Mangold and Cocks can create such an utterly shallow cultural depiction working in an era that gave us not only the Red Scare but the Civil Rights Movement, the beginnings of the Vietnam War, and the Kennedy Assassination. Each of these events played a vital role in the cultural shift happening in the United States during the middle of the 20th century.
In setting A Complete Unknown in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, this film is inherently political. These characters are the artists, writers, and poets penning the protest songs the 1960s are so famous for. Russo (Fanning) makes a quick mention of the political activism that took up much of her time in the early 1960s. Meanwhile, we see Seeger (Norton) defending himself after being named in the Red Scare early in the film.
With all of this, Mangold and Cocks craft a story that happens in a vacuum. The politics, the social change, heck, even shifts in rock and roll, and the resulting musical evolution are all missing from Dylan’s world.
This last part seems particularly interesting as the last act watches Dylan rile against the folk music scene out of which he sprung, ending with his controversial use of an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan wants to be a rocker; he’s not the folk singer he once was. However, the film neglects to show how this world affects Dylan and why he evolves. We’re just supposed to be excited to watch this man in action.
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Clumsy Historical Narrative
A Complete Unknown struggles to step out from behind its clumsy historical narrative. The film covers roughly four years, from Dylan’s 1961 arrival in New York to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. However, Mangold chooses a strange, fragmented structure to handle the time jumps.
We hop through the narrative following Dylan, however, Mangold leaves out the film’s humanity. We only see Russo and Baez when Dylan is invested in them. At the moments when these relationships are going through conflict, and we have an opportunity to truly see who these people are, the film doesn’t care. All the character-building happens off-screen, and the film is flatter for it.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a Dylan concert film, you can’t go wrong with A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet brings a solid performance as the iconic musician. However, Mangold’s music biopic is merely a shallow take on a complex human being. This is such a shame as there’s a truly talented cast being wasted in a starry-eyed examination of one man’s genius. Do with that what you will.
A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on Christmas Day.
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