“I wanna tell you a little story. Few months back, my friend Woody Guthrie and I, we met a young man. He dropped in on us outta nowhere and he played us a song. And in that moment we got a feeling we were getting a glimpse of the future. We wanted to share that feeling. He’s been playing a bit around town but I thought it was time he take the stage at Folk City. Say hello to my friend, Bobby Dylan.”
After 2023’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and 2019’s Best Picture nominee “Ford v Ferrari” director James Mangold decided to tackle a musical biopic for his next project, one about one of the most iconic and enigmatic songwriters of the 20th century: Bob Dylan. Mangold has previously directed the Oscar-winning 2005 film “Walk the Line,” covering the life of Johnny Cash and June Carter, so I knew this film would be in good hands. Still, I was surprised at how he managed to shake up the formula with this picture, earning his first career nomination for Best Director.
The film takes place in two halves, his beginning as a folk musician in 1961, and the events leading up to when Dylan “goes electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Timothée Chalamet gives an engrossing performance as Bob Dylan, but he can be a little unintelligible at times during the first half, so you may wish to wait until you can watch it with subtitles. Dylan meets the beloved folk singer Pete Seeger (played by Edward Norton, in an Academy Award-nominated performance), and they soon become good friends. Seeger helps Dylan catch his big break, and Dylan’s star begins to rise.
Four years later, Bob Dylan begins to resent both his fame and his expectations. He breaks up with his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (played by Elle Fanning) and goes on tour with the legendary Joan Baez (played by the Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro, who previously starred in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick”). They briefly have a relationship, but that fizzles out as well. Dylan then decides to experiment, switching from traditional acoustic guitars to electric instrumentation for his next few albums, leading to much frustration from Seeger and the rest of the folk music world.
Despite being the protagonist of his own biopic, Bob Dylan’s portrayal comes off as shockingly unsympathetic in the second half. I found myself rooting against him at times which was a daring decision by the filmmakers, but I feel that it ultimately strengthened the film as a whole.
The rest of the ensemble cast also give good performances. Some standouts include Eriko Hatsune as Toshi Seeger and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.
The best aspect of the film was its sound design. The audio mixing was consistently excellent, helping to show the transition from acoustic instruments to electric backing in a way that visuals simply never could. The penultimate scene of the Newport folk festival, in particular, contains the best use of sound I’ve heard in a film in all of 2024. I sincerely hope that it can win the Oscar.
A widely publicized event that took place late last year was Chalamet’s visit to the University of Minnesota, where he met with the marching band and invited them to the world premiere of “A Complete Unknown” on Dec. 5. My friend from high school, Jacob Alcott, is a member of that same marching band, and he was able to meet Chalamet and attend the world premiere. His thoughts on both the film and the experience are below.
“It [the film] sometimes seems more like Timothée Chalamet doing a Bob Dylan photo shoot instead of playing Bob Dylan, and when he is doing a good impression that is all it really is, the movie lacks much depth. Most of the movie feels more like Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan cover album over an actual movie, like at least half of the movie is songs being performed in full. Characters don’t really develop besides Bob Dylan, who goes from ‘I like folk music’ to ‘I want to make rock and also I hate being famous.’ I am very biased in its favor lmao, the band program got paid and we got special treatment. So we got to meet him and all that, then got an advance screening as thanks. Still, it’s just ok like three-and-a-half stars [in my opinion],” Alcott said.
I think this goes to show that when it comes to every movie, everyone can have their own thoughts. While I may have enjoyed the picture, I respect those who still have flaws with the film.
My final rating for “A Complete Unknown” is an ‘electrifying’ 8/10.