Driving back home after watching a great movie often feels like the start of a new chapter, the future an infinite expanse of opportunity. “A Complete Unknown” redefines this feeling, leaving me in a daze walking out of the theater as if I just left behind the full life I lived through the immersive picture. Staring out at the road, I settled back into my life with a pleasant feeling in my heart as I said goodbye to the characters and places I loved in the picture.
In an era of high-budget biopics like “Elvis,” “Back to Black” and “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” it is easy to dismiss this film as just another one with large names attached. However, “A Complete Unknown” is the first biopic that was compelling enough to bring me to the movie theater.
Director James Mangold announced in January of 2020 that Timothée Chalamet would play Bob Dylan, the singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1960s and defined the folk genre, in the biopic based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric!”
Going into the film, I was worried it would be geared towards pretentious film obsessives, becoming another hipster film people add to their top four Letterboxd favorites to seem cooler, but lacking any relatability to a general audience. But the movie feels like an experience no one can miss; it is about living in the moment without thinking about the future.
Dylan’s character says you have to be a freak or really good looking to attract attention and the film chose to embody the former in every sense; the character and the film itself are strange, reflecting the man who inspired them.
The opening scenes follow Chalamet as Dylan before he became a household name, visiting his musical idol, Woody Guthrie, in a hospital after learning of Guthrie’s illness through a newspaper article. Though the scenes are painted in shades of browns, grays and dark blues, as if coated in a thick layer of dust, they still feel oddly colorful, rich and saturated with Dylan’s radiating passion for the music.
The movie only covers the first four years of Dylan’s early career, as he rises to fame. By excluding his adolescence, the audience does not get a clear picture of what drives the man who has released 40 studio albums to date and defined the folk genre, other than his inherent passion.
For the lack of character depth, some might call the script half-baked and superficial. However, to me it is a refreshing contrast to storytelling in recent years that often relies on lazily constructed voiceovers to provide background information. This narrative device is the only way to correctly tell the story of Dylan, who remains an enigmatic public figure and is the definition of acting with his heart rather than his brain, offering no glimpse into his inner thoughts.
Chalamet said it best on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and described the real-life Dylan as “one of these names like Paul McCartney … (that are) in the pop culture sphere … (but) he’s remained a mystery somehow decades later, so this movie doesn’t demystify him.”
I agree with Chalamet, the movie feels like an extension of the man himself, although with some fictional elements. Even with my limited prior knowledge of Dylan, I could still pick out the parts of his story that were altered or omitted, yet each choice feels intentional and contributes to a stronger flowing narrative rather than glamorizing the story.
There’s a saying, “Do not speak ill of the dead,” but this biopic, made while Dylan is still living, benefits from brutal honesty. I cannot imagine anyone leaving the theater feeling sympathetic toward him, as the movie stays true to his contradictory personality, which often betrayed those around him. But this movie needs no heroes.
The film’s passionate team clearly focused on the music, not the personalities of the characters. While audiences may not leave as fans of Dylan as a man, they are likely to become fans of his music, or that of other musicians who make cameos in this retelling of a rich period of musical history. Personally, I left a bigger fan of Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie.
I have long thought the prime era of film has passed us by, forgoing my tradition of going to the movie theater once a month like I did when I was a kid. But this film feels aged like fine wine, and is unlike any other production of the 2020s, telling a story from a much older time.
With one of the greatest strengths of this movie lying in its musical scores, this film needs to be enjoyed in a theater, where you can lose yourself in the sound of the drums, the guitar and the harmonica.
If you want to watch a movie with plenty of music, a dash of political history and a sprinkling of fiction, I highly recommend visiting your local cinema to watch “A Complete Unknown.”
Rating: ★★★★☆
