A Complete Unknown

The 2024 music biopic, A Complete Unknown, showcases the legacy of famed folk singer, Bob Dylan. Being distributed by Searchlight and based on the 2005 book, Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, making a film about one of the most sensational figures within the music space seemed like a no brainer, with Hollywood’s affinity for dramatic musical biopics no doubt assisting with getting it completed. While the box office was only average, the strong critical reception and plentiful amount of Oscar nominations (including the big categories like Actor, Director and Picture) gave it the boost to place in line with other award-favored biopics of old like Bohemian Rhapsody, What’s Love Got to Do with It, Ray and Walk the Line. While it’ll be interesting to see how it ages with time as a lot of these biopics usually blend into to each other and don’t hold as much power after their initial hype, it can at least say it had a grasp for a period of time.

In 1961, New York, aspiring musician, Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) travels to visit his hospitalized idol, famous American folk singer, Woody Guthrie (played by Scoot McNairy) to play him his music which, while sung in a flat tone, has a poetic quality to its lyrics that captivates both Guthrie and his friend and fellow musician, Peter Seeger (played by Edward Norton), who takes Dylan in and helps him get off the ground as a singer. As time passes and he gets more and more successful, Dylan become a staple of the folk music space but starts to grow disillusioned with the genre’s dreary sound and repetitive outdated tone, wanting to branch into a new style of electric, which is not taken well by Seeger or others in the folk community. While this is going on, Dylan struggles to remain attached to his girlfriend, Sylvie Russo (played by Elle Fanning) while touring, especially since he’s frequently paired up with the equally beloved and prevalent singer, Joan Baez (played by Monica Barbaro), with whom he did share a fling with which only causes more strife between him and Sylvie. With Dylan preparing to showcase his new electric style at a folk concert which everybody is warning him will end in disaster, this public controversial stir will only heighten his status and help form him into the American icon he will one day become.

A Complete Unknown succeeds in delivering a tepid take on this period of Dylan’s career, but it’s hard to claim that it succeeds in magnifying the person to a level that the movie and history claims him to be. Surviving on competent direction, good performances, and nicely handled song numbers, the film doesn’t offer an in-depth analysis of its focal celebrity and loses more and more steam as it chugs through an all-too-familiar formula.

It’s no surprise that this film did well, but people were still fairly surprised when they saw how many nominations it received on all the awards circuits. This wasn’t because they disliked the picture since a lot of them seemed perfectly fine with it, but rather because it didn’t seem like it went above other biopics that have done similar thing in a much more effective manner. The music bio is a favorite among the Academy, so this movie was already off to a good start, but with it being distributed by Searchlight (a company that amassed a total of 51 Oscars and had previously distributed Best Picture winners like Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, The Shape of Water and Nomadland), featuring gradually growing movie star Timothée Chalamet in the leading role, being directed by James Mangold, who had already earned massive Award success with his 2005 musical biopic on Johnny Cash, Walk the Line, being co-written by Jay Cocks who was nominated twice for writing The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York, and featuring a plethora of producers (including Mangold and Chalamet), the question was never whether it would be nominated, it was how many would it received, and it earned a decent number (eight in total).

When it’s taken down from the exalted pedestal that the Hollywood upper crusts have placed it upon, the movie does feel pretty well constructed from a general moviegoer’s perspective, especially given that it doesn’t really have a set narrative or specific cut-off point. Deciding not to focus on the life of Bob Dylan but instead the impact his music had on the American public during a time of great political unrest, the film is at its strongest whenever it does show off a concert or the development of a song during this uncertain period. Mangold knows how to pace this kind of story out, as well as fill it full of passionate characters and cinematic flair without losing that authentic grit, but this film is played so generically that it doesn’t stand out much from the pack. The direction, scripting, performances, and even the visuals and musical choices, all feel like expected beats from a check list that these movies constantly follow, and since Dylan’s life is not really explored much, there isn’t much original or newly discovered content to latch onto to at least give it something fresh. The directing and scripting are effective but very safe, the performances are good, but don’t go above what’s expected of them, and while it’s interesting getting a look into this period of American history through the lens of folk music, you’d probably be more informed by a google search or documentary.

Given the other major musicians who have had biopics throughout Hollywood history, Bob Dylan not having one until now was a little strange. While he’s appeared in movies in the past, this was the first cinematic release to chronologically portray his life in a matter-of-fact manner. As previously mentioned, the film doesn’t really take much time to focus on him as a person (his childhood and reasons for being a musician are completely skipped over), and even a lot of the specifics of his music career aren’t really addressed since it skips forward in time randomly without any way of determining how far ahead its gone, so the only real takeaway is how he grappled with becoming a symbol in a genre that he quickly grew to despise. While these are all good to explore, it can be a little difficult to fully get behind due to how much of a jerk Dylan seems to be. On the one hand, it’s admirable that this film isn’t softening his real-life persona for the purposes of pandering to obsessed fans, but not only does this delivery get a little stale after a while when every character interaction always has the same conclusion, but due to Dylan seemingly not suffering any troubles in his past or during his career (at least nothing worse than not being allowed to do whatever he wants), it makes him come across as a self-absorbed petulant loner in comparison to other artists who might’ve shown their bad sides, but it normally came from a past trauma, mental problems, or a form of substance abuse, whereas Dylan doesn’t have that kind of baggage. The film also painfully glorifies him to the point that it feels a little manipulative, with his singing moments being paired with enamored reaction shots and glistening lighting to the point that it feels like he’s being positioned as the next coming of Orpheus, it’s a little too much.

Chalamet does do a good job, capturing the look and voice close to perfectly, and even delivers the imperfect singing in a way that forces the audience to try and understand what made him popular (because it clearly wasn’t his singing), but there are times where you can feel the voice dropping from time to time, and it’s hard to call a routine that has been performed to death that striking from an overall acting perspective (these kinds of biopics often bear the same kind of fruit). The rest of the actors are pretty good as well and even feel a little more interesting than Dylan due to having a bit more intrigue to work with. This isn’t always the case, like Elle Fanning is stuck in a pretty ill-cast role as the generic love interest, but otherwise, the rest make for some memorable side characters. Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton are pretty good as popular folk singers of the time but feel a little tied down by the dull script, and Eriko Hatsune, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler and Scoot McNairy may not have very prominent roles but do the best with what they have.

The look of the film has a muted feel that screams more realistic and since the highlighted music is the slower more thoughtful genre of folk, it’s no surprise there are no fancy cinematic tricks present. With that said, it doesn’t feel cheap or lazily filmed thanks to the cinematography by Phedon Papamichael which portrays the softer intimidate moments very nicely and is even able to gets a few cinematic shots during the stage performances, which are probably the most visually pleasing aspects of the film. Switching between the performers (who are given enough quick edits to not just feel like they’re stoically swaying on-stage), and the large expansive crowds (which look so vast and magnificent through the choice of shots and the almost deafening sound design) makes these moments feel dynamic and memorable, and it really shows Dylan’s growing prowess without needing to speak it into words. The sets have a dusty look to them that pairs well against the natural lighting which makes things feel rustic but authentic, and the way the movie captures 1960s America through the choice of wardrobe and the political zeitgeist surrounding each musical concert is pretty well executed, even if not to an extreme degree. The film got attention for allowing all the actors to sing their parts personally without needing to be dubbed, and while that could normally be a problem for a biopic about a famous singer, this film has the lucky factor that Dylan himself wasn’t that great a singer and therefore doesn’t have to sound good. It is instead his lyrics and the purpose behind his songs that drew people in, and Chalamet is able to capture that flat tone of singing, yet also the captivating magnetisms of his words pretty well. None of these song sequences really provide insight into their creation, but they do their job.

A Complete Unknown may have been given the usual label of ‘’not your typical biopic’’, but that feels grossly misinformed. While the film is handled well by people who know what they’re doing, it doesn’t do anything that hasn’t already been done in other stories, and feels a little shallow when it comes to portraying its lead, and while it’s hard to determine the best way to do this story as his actual history seems to lack any form of specific cinematic hook, there had to have been a more interesting avenue. As it stands, A Complete Unknown is a well-made movie that has good direction, writing, and acting, but isn’t going to be one that will have much weight or presence in the future (which was shown when it failed to win a single Oscar). Not as timeless as his music, but will no doubt appeal to fans who have stuck with him after all this time.