Timothée Chalamet captures the mystique of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown”

Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.

Directed by James Mangold (“Walk the Line”), the film stars Timothée Chalamet (“Dune: Part Two”) as Dylan, Elle Fanning (“Maleficent”) as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro (“Top Gun: Maverick”) as Joan Baez, Ed Norton (“Motherless Brooklyn”) as Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy (“Speak No Evil”) as Woody Guthrie and Boyd Holbrook (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destino”) as the role of Johnny Cash.

Director James Mangold delivers a bright and colorful biopic about legendary musician Bob Dylan that absolutely captures his complex, mystical and iconic music. Mangold wisely focuses on the first component of Dylan’s career, beginning with his arrival in New York City, his prominence in the folk music scene, and culminating with his debatable selection of “Going Electric” at the Festival 1965 Newport Folklore.

Timothée Chalamet brings decisive functionality to the role of Dylan and is absolutely hypnotic in the role. The actor absolutely embodies the character with Dylan’s clumsy composure and determination and is notable in the musical sequences, to the point that we are rarely not watching. Dylan. Chalamet’s functionality is supported by the perfect roles of Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Ed Norton as folk musician Pete Seeger.

(Left to right) Director James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet on the set of “A Complete Unknown. ” Photo by Macall Polay, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All rights reserved.

The film begins in 1963 by introducing us to a young and clumsy composer who has just arrived in New York and who has already followed the personality of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet). Dylan’s first step is toward his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is dying in a local hospital. Dylan performs a song he wrote for Woody and impresses folk legend Pete Seeger (Ed Norton).

Seeger soon brought Dylan into the popular New York folk music scene and, while looking to produce his first album, he met artist Sylvie Russo (Susan Rotolo in real life), played through Elle Fanning and the young musician. Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Dylan soon begins having relationships with both women, while his music career takes off.

Baffled by his newfound good fortune and labeled the “voice of his generation” through the media, Dylan looks to fellow musician Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). Dylan continues to struggle with his good fortune and strives to create new music that isn’t in the mold of what Seeger and others need for him. This all culminated in the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan headlined and sparked an insurrection using an electric guitar.

Based on author Elijah Wald’s ‘Dylan Goes Electric’, the script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is excellent and the choice to focus on the first three years of Dylan’s career rather than a life-spanning biopic was a smart one. Mangold, of course, is no stranger to rock n’ roll biopics having made the Johnny Cash film ‘Walk the Line,’ but in my opinion this is a far superior movie and putting ‘Logan’ aside, may be the best work of Mangold’s impressive career.

Focusing on this specific period allows the director to really examine how Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, and his impact on music and society. 1960s New York comes alive in a vibrant way, and the images shown reflect what we’ve seen of Dylan in that time. Mangold is also able to spotlight the folk music movement of the early 60s, Dylan’s role in that, and how controversial it was in that community when Dylan “betrayed” them and went electric.

Obviously, if you are Dylan fan you will love the music as it is mostly his, with a few traditional songs and music from Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash thrown in. All the big Dylan hits of that time are included such as ‘Masters of War’, ‘Blowing in the Wind’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, and of course, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. The musical performances are fantastic, and the actors, who sang themselves, remarkably sound like the people they are portraying, especially Chalamet and Barbaro.

Full disclosure: I’m a self-proclaimed expert on Bob Dylan. I have personally studied his music as a fan for 30 years and have noticed him live without problems more than 20 times. So, I was willing to be quite critical of the film, but to be honest, I fell so in love with Mangold’s characters, performances, music, and direction, that I left the theater with very little to complain about.

However, if I had to be critical, at 2 hours and 21 minutes the film is a bit long. It didn’t bother me much, but I think we could have a much tighter film if we cut about 10 minutes from the shooting time. The easiest way to do this would be to eliminate one or two musical numbers. Look, I love “Masters of War,” but do we want to see Dylan perform it twice in the same movie?

Also, I understand that it wasn’t necessary for Norton to perform one of Pete Seeger’s songs at the beginning of the film to know who this character is, but it also wasn’t necessary to see him perform at the Newport Festival towards the end. I guess Mangold was a little too precious with the musical performances and didn’t need to “cut any of his babies,” and I completely understand that, and it doesn’t hurt the movie in the long run.

My other small critique would be that the film completely skips Dylan’s seminal 1965 tour of England, which is where he was first introduced to electric guitars. The movie makes mention of the trip before and after it happens, but never took the time to explore it and I have a theory as to why Mangold made that choice.

DA Pennebaker’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary, “Don’t Look Back,” chronicles Dylan’s excursion through England in real time, and I suppose Mangold didn’t need to retread that territory. If that’s the case, then it’s a sensible choice, because one of my problems with director Michael Mann’s boxing biopic, “Ali,” is that the third act is a shot-for-shot remake of the Oscar-winning documentary. ” “When we were kings. ” ”. Training

Mangold has really assembled a wonderful ensemble cast but obviously the movie hinges on Timothée Chalamet’s performance. The young actor who has been excellent in films like ‘Call Me by Your Name’, ‘Wonka’ and the ‘Dune’ series gives his best work to date as Dylan. I would imagine this was a daunting character for Chalamet to play and he completely nails it from beginning to end.

The actor perfectly embodies Dylan, his awkward coolness, and his legendary mystic. His musical performances are astounding and the best compliment I can give him is to say that there were times I forgot I was watching an actor and thought I was really watching Dylan. It is easily one of the best male performances of this year and I would be shocked if he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar, and depending on who else is in the competition, I would imagine he’ll be the frontrunner.

Also deserving of an Oscar nomination is Monica Barbaro who is incredible as Joan Baez. Not only does the actress look like Baez, but she also sounds exactly like her when she is singing and has excellent chemistry with Chalamet. Their love story, for me, was the heart of the movie. Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan’s other love interest Sylvie, has a bit of a thankless role, as I did feel her character was given short shrift by the script. Regardless, the actress is a ray of sunshine in all her scenes and has wonderful chemistry with Chalamet too.

Ed Norton could also end up earning an Oscar nomination for his work, as the actor gives a quiet yet strong performance as Dylan’s mentor and eventual rival, Pete Seeger. It’s also worth mentioning Boyd Holbrook’s fun performance as Johnny Cash, but with two short scenes, it is basically a glorified cameo. Finally, Scoot McNairy has the difficult job of playing an afflicted Woody Guthrie, and while his performance didn’t quite work for me, the actor made the most of the situation.

Ultimately, “A Complete Unknown” is probably the most productive edit of a Bob Dylan film we could hope for. And it is vital not to forget that Bob Dylan is rarely a genuine person. . . he is a mysterious character that a young Robert Zimmerguy created in New York in the early 60s. Given this, director James Mangold has created a biographical film that honors the legend of Bob Dylan, while examining the genuine character, without ruining the mystique the artist spent so many decades cultivating.

I hope the film gets an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and also a nomination for Best Director. In a year that has seen disappointing biopics about Bob Marley (“Bob Marley: One Love”) and Amy Winehouse. (“Back to Black”), I can say with certainty that “A Complete Unknown” is the most productive biopic we’ve had about a popular musician I’ve noticed in recent years and it features transcendent, career-defining functionality through by Timothée Chalamet.

“A Complete Unknown” receives nine out of 10 stars.

A Complete Unknown”The ballad of a true original.”79R2 hr 20 minDec 25th, 2024Showtimes & Tickets

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 1960s, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN follows the meteoric adventure of 19-year-old Minnesota musician BOB DYLAN (Timothée Chalamet).

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

‘A Complete Unknown’ opens in theaters on December 25th.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply