A Complete Unknown
In 1961, a nineteen year-old from Hibbing, Minnesota, Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), arrived in Greenwich Village to immerse himself in the folk scene as "A Complete Unknown."
Laura's Review: B
Writer (with "Gangs of New York" scribe Jay Cocks)/director James Mangold ("Cop Land," "Ford v Ferrari") focuses on the music while taking a number of narrative liberties adapting Elijah Wald's 'Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties.' The film is episodic, but features two very fine performances and entertains along the way. Young Chalamet fans unfamiliar with Dylan's music may find it difficult to find much to grasp onto here, though.
The film actually begins with Pete Seeger (Edward Norton in one of the finest performances of his career) refusing to name names before the House Unamerican Committee before singing his friend Woody Guthrie's controversial 'This Land Is Your Land' for reporters on the Capitol steps. Meanwhile, unable to find his idol in Greenwich Village, Bob is pointed toward New Jersey where he visits Guthrie in the hospital, singing he and Seeger his 'Song for Woody.' Both men are impressed, Seeger taking the young musician under his wing and into his home. Dylan will have a backstage view as Pete engages a huge audience with 'Wimoweh,' then a much more intimate one as Pete introduces Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro, "Top Gun: Maverick") at Folk City, then gets Bob himself on stage, Baez reversing her departure to watch. But it will be at an Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz, "The Exorcist: Believer") folk recording session in a NYC Church where Dylan will meet his great love Suze Rotolo (Elle Fanning), here renamed Sylvie Russo (at Dylan's request), an artist and activist who would inspire his social consciousness but would eventually flee from the baggage that would accompany his fame.
Never having been a big Dylan fan myself, I was reminded by this film just how important the man's music was during a tumultuous time, one song after another making an impact. But this is also the film's biggest drawback, as each song is set like a gemstone before moving on to the next with little explanation of just what inspired it. After Dylan's unsuccessful first album of covers, a record exec believing no one wanted to hear 'what a twenty year-old kid wrote last week,' it would be Sylvie who reminded him that we had a civil war going on down south, nuclear bombs hanging over our heads and that folk music wasn't about the dust bowl anymore, insisting that his original music needed to be recorded. That's about all we get in way of explanation, Mangold occasionally showing us Bob watching the news or flashing to mere seconds of the civil rights movement. After giving the Cuban missile crisis the spotlight, Kennedy's assassination is relegated to 'and that happened' in a mere moment, almost an afterthought.
Instead the progression of Dylan's music is cast against his love life and increasing fame. When Sylvie leaves to go overseas, he'll fall into an affair with Baez, whose music he disdains as 'too pretty' and 'trying too hard,' giving her one of his songs to record, something which alarms Sylvie upon her return. She watches as he takes the stage with Baez at west coast folk festivals, hers one in a montage of overly worshipful audience members. Dylan begins to build a band (only Al Kooper (Charlie Tahan, "The Pale Blue Eye") gets much of a call out, Mike Bloomfield (Eli Brown) mentioned when Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison) asks to join) and leans into rock 'n roll, causing a rift with his old time folk heroes, something which comes to a head when he goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 (urged on by Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook, "The Bikeriders") who tells him to 'make some noise' and 'track some mud on the carpet,' but who, in actuality, was not there that year).
While Dylan remains much of a mystery (a complete unknown as it were), his sunglasses-during-the-day persona arriving with increased fame, Chalamet dons him like a well worn leather jacket, his prettiness scuffed up, the voice, especially when singing, eerily accurate, his posture crouched inward. Ed Norton, too, is just phenomenal here, endearingly cornball, yet stridently committed. Fanning does a great job as yin to Dylan's yang, making Sylvie/Suze's decision to leave relatable. Barbaro's Baez is presented as an ambitious opportunist. Holbrook suggest Cash without impersonating him. Dan Fogler continues his evolution from "Balls of Fury" into character actor as Baez/Dylan manager Albert Grossman.
With "A Complete Unknown," Mangold erects a Church of Dylan, his songs the choir for an era, but anyone looking for Dylan's own "Bound for Glory" will not find it here.
Robin's Review: B-
In 1961, 19-year old Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) emigrated from the wilds of Minnesota to the bustle of New York City. He took the music world by storm, topping the charts and became a folk music sensation. Then, he broke new ground when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 in “A Complete Unknown.”
Director James Mangold adapts, with Jay Cocks, the book, by Elijah Wald, Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties and covers the five years of Dylan’s beginnings as a budding musical icon. Dylan’s story is told by a series of events in his life, culminating with his decision to go electric at Newport.
Along the way, Dylan (and we) meet a dying Woody Guthrie (Scoot Mcnairya) and his close friend and fellow musician Pete Seeger (Ed Norton), who helped mentor the newcomer in his early days. Then, there is Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) – renamed from Suze Rotolo for the film – Dylan’s girlfriend before his fame. Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), also a folk star back then, and her often turbulent relationship with Dylan is explored. Also, Johnny Cash makes an appearance, declaring he is one of Dylan’s biggest fans.
Timothee Chalamet does a darn good job playing the icon, showing Dylan’s self assured talent and creativity over the four years depicted, culminating with his playing electric at Newport – much to the chagrin and anger of his purist, folk fan base.
The episodic nature of the storytelling moves from one defining event to another for the songwriter-singer, usually with his important songs in accompaniment. As such, it feels more like “Highlights of Bob Dylan: 1961 to 1965” than an actual biography of the man’s life. The highlights are accompanied by all the songs he created over that four year time. If you are curious, look it up.
I do not think I learned a heck of a lot new about Dylan as I watched “A Complete Unknown.” I was an adolescent turning teen at the time so protest songs, like Dylan’s, were my music, appealing to the young rebel in me. The filmmakers cross the t’s and dot the I’s of the period but I never felt like I was there.
Searchlight Pictures releases "A Complete Unknown" in theaters on 12/25/24.
