It would be easy to dismiss A Complete Unknown, in which Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan during the 1960s New York beginnings of his career, as just another music biopic. After all, films about pop and rock legends now arrive with the regularity of superhero movies, mostly offering tidy takes on the messy lives behind brilliant artistry and conforming to well-worn story arcs.
A Complete Unknown does adhere to some of that formula and the more devoted Dylan fans will find much to quibble about when it comes to how it juggles his 1961-65 chronology and what it leaves out.
But largely due to Chalamet’s uncanny acting and singing performance, A Complete Unknown becomes something exceptional. Yes, it’s a remarkable act of mimicry every time he steps up to the microphone, but it’s part of a vibrant and often unflattering portrait of the young Dylan as he goes from folk messiah to rock enigma while recording a run of records that arguably the Bard never bettered.
Away from the music, much of the film is spent on his juggling two romantic relationships. One is with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), who is closely based on Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo, a woman who schooled him in civil rights, politics and more. The other is with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), whose early covers of his songs helped him on his way.
Both characters hold their own against the prickly and self-centred Dylan, and there’s definite chemistry in the duet scenes between Chalamet and Barbaro.
All that helps make this a movie that makes Dylan – him, his music, his sense of humour, his lothario swagger – immediate and entertaining, rather than treating him as an unfathomable mystery.
The 2007 Gus Van Sant movie I’m Not There, in which Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and others all played a different Dylanesque figure, offered a great Dylan-as-riddle. This one comes directed by James Mangold, whose past credits include the safe but captivating biopic of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. It’s written by regular Martin Scorsese collaborator Jay Cocks, based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald.
Finishing it with Dylan’s confrontational electric performance at the gentle acoustic bastion of the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 proves a rousing finale. Especially as the folkie old guard, like Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, terrific), who has mentored Dylan since his arrival in New York, see their great white hope find his liberation in higher decibels.
Rating out of five: ★★★★
A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, is in cinemas now.
