A Complete Unknown (2024) – Review

Quick Thoughts – Grade – B – A Complete Unknown is a solid biopic that gives Bob Dylan fans what they want (lots of Bob Dylan music). The James Mangold directed film leans into the biopic formula, but refreshingly avoids Dylan’s early years by focusing on his rise to fame between 1960 and 1965. 

Based on Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties, A Complete Unknown focuses on a 19-year old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) showing up in New York to chase fame and fortune as a musician. Helping him along the way are Woody Gurthrie (Scoot McNairy) and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who first meet Bob when he shows up at Guthrie’s hospital to pay his respects to the ailing Guthrie. Under Seeger’s guidance Dylan starts playing at local venues and eventually becomes one of the most iconic performers ever. Along the way, he starts a relationship with college student Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), and also begins a tumultuous affair with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). From there, the movie showcases his greatest hits during the time period and leads up to his performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. 

While pitching the movie to to Dylan, Mangold explained that the movie was about “a kid suffocating in Minnesota, and he leaves behind his family and his friends and everything he knows, and goes to New York City and invents himself anew and becomes successful, makes new family and new friends, and starts to suffocate [again].” It’s an interesting concept for a biopic and it keeps the Dylan mystery alive while making sure that audiences have plenty of songs to listen to as Chalamet performs close to 40 songs. What’s neat is that there are enough clues amidst all of Dylan’s lies (he never was part of a circus) to piece together his mindset. Whether it’s a conversation about the 1942 film Now, Voyager, his constant songwriting, or his desperate fight to not be put in a box, Dylan is a guy who has decided to pursue his musical career by reinventing himself into something different.

Since it’s a James Mangold (Walk the Line, Logan, 3:10 to Yuma, Ford v Ferrari) directed film, the performances are unsurprisingly excellent. Monica Barbaro and Boyd Holbrook steal the show and legitimately pop as Joan Baez and Johnny Cash. The best moment of the film comes during a beautiful moment involving Cash attempting to move his car out of a parking space (and failing) and then offering Dylan some chips. Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Dan Fogler are all solid and their performances hit all the right beats” To prepare for the role, Chalamet spent five years learning how to play guitar and harmonica and insisted that the set be closed off to ensure no false steps while he inhabited the headspace of Dylan. Impressively, Chalamet Norton, Barbaro and Holbrook provided the vocals for the songs and they sound great.

One of the best things about the film is the cinematography by Phedon Papamichael (Walk the Line, Ford v. Ferrari, Sideways, Nebraska). His framing and lighting feel like classical perfection and the angles used to capture each performance keep them feeling fresh. The biggest drawback of the film is there’s about 4,000 shots featuring people looking at Dylan like he’s changed their entire world. The reaction shots look great, but they get a bit distracting as they happen just about every 30 seconds (I’m exaggerating here, but you’ll see what I mean). 

Final thoughts – A Complete Unknown is a well made biopic that will thrill Dylan fans. I’ve been lucky enough to watch it twice already and it will most certainly be a crowd-pleaser.