by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
Bob Dylan is one of the most influential musicians of all time, as well as one of the most enigmatic. The details of his mysterious life are legends to his fanbase, but it makes creating a traditional biopic about him difficult. As the title suggests, A Complete Unknown doesn’t shy away from its protagonist’s obscure nature. Throughout the film, Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) takes a journey of self-discovery that only he seems to understand, frustrating and inspiring his peers. It’s not a complete head-to-tail movie about his life, only covering his explosion into the folk scene and his controversial decision to go electric. Within that period is more than enough to fill up a two-and-a-half-hour movie, and even that doesn’t feel like enough time to fully explore Dylan’s early-‘60s career.
We’ve had so many musical biopics in the last few years, and A Complete Unknown sticks as close to formula as possible. It hits every cliché imaginable, and has some parts that are eye-rollingly corny. Scenes tend to end abruptly as we rush from one pivotal moment in Dylan’s long history to the next. And there are more than a few times where it feels like the actors are just reading Wikipedia pages out loud. Elle Fanning, as Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie, has to carry the brunt of this, unfortunately. Fanning tries her best to bring life to a very thinly written girlfriend-waiting-in-the wings stereotype, but she never really feels like she has much of a personality outside of being his love interest.
Luckily, the film is buoyed by actors skilled enough to cover for the moments when the script falters. Edward Norton completely disappears into Pete Seeger, Boyd Holbrook is a hilarious Johnny Cash, and Scoot McNairy gives a very quiet but impactful performance as the dying Woody Guthrie. And of course, Chalamet continues his remarkable run of performances. At first, it’s a bit jarring to hear Paul Atreides speak with Dylan’s small, tweedy voice, but it’s definitely one of those experiences where you forget you’re watching an actor after a while. It’s the singing and playing that sells this performance. Chalamet clearly put a lot of work into perfecting Dylan’s nasally and ever-changing tone and unique guitar playing, which is an Oscar-worthy feat in itself, aside from how well he embodies him in the rest of the movie.
There’s a magic that happens any time music starts to play in the movie. The actors are able to pull off some pretty impressive vocals that transport you straight back to the era. It’s so good, in fact, that it makes the dramatic scenes feel weak in comparison. I’m not sure if it’s that the music is just that great, or if the writing is just that mediocre. Either way, it makes for a somewhat uneven experience where you find yourself just waiting for them to sing again. But if you’re making a movie about a musician, it’s not so bad if the one thing you nail is the music.
Somewhere inside A Complete Unknown, there’s a classic. But it’s a little to paint-by-numbers to be the transcendent Bob Dylan epic some people might want. The writers can’t take all the blame for the clunkiness of the movie. The drama of Dylan switching music styles seems pretty silly in an era where artists change their sound every album as a rule. Balding men treating playing an electric guitar as a revolutionary act can only be taken so seriously by a 2024 audience. Still, it’s good enough to be a fun holiday season watch, if only to see Chalamet’s soon-to-be Oscar-nominated performance.
Rating: Liked It
A Complete Unknown is currently playing in theaters
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