TL;DR – A wild exploration of one of the most prominent musical writers of an age or two, but also of a time and movement in American music that I don’t think we’ll see again.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

A Complete Unknown Review –

There are a lot of musical biopics out there in the world, some more earned than others. But there is an understandable power behind them, given music’s ability to move your soul. But when you think back to which songwriters have had the most impact on music in the modern era, few names are in the same ballpark as Bob Dylan, and it makes sense to explore his life and the effect it did have and well is still having to this day.   

So, to set the scene, one cold New York night, a young Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives at the hospital bed of his idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) after hearing he was unwell. Bob is an expert in Folk Music, having picked up sounds from across America. Luckily for Bob, who was also visiting Woody at that time, was famed folk musician Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who brought the young man under his wings. Soon, Bob will be captivating the New York Folk Music scene, but being a singular talent comes with as many downsides as successes.  

The heart of this film is Bob Dylan, which means that casting is a matter of boom or bust. Thankfully, Timothée Chalamet is bringing his all to the role that is not so much a mimicking of the singer but more a performance that captures the vibe of the only songwriter ever to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and then didn’t turn up to accept the award. Timothée is the core of the film, but the entire supporting cast is giving phenomenal performances as well. The report and chemistry in this cast are outstanding, only elevated more by the fact that many of them were singing live in the performance. On the singing front, they are not perfect, but they absolutely capture the essence of the songs, and it was a joy to hear them perform. Also, while I am not a trained guitarist, I have been around enough of them to be reasonably confident that they knew what they were doing with their instruments in the film.     

There is so much of Bob Dylan’s life you could cover in a film, so the problem then becomes not what you cover but what you cut out. With that in mind, I think they made the right decision by focusing on the Newport Folk Festival as the throughput for the narrative. Not only is this a central shifting point in Bob Dylan’s musical style, but it also was a snapshot of a country in turmoil. People might not know about the finer details of folk music politics and the forces that try to keep it pure. Everyone has had experiences with social forces that try to gatekeep facets of art, sport, games, etc. and refuse to accept any change. In many respects, this is a story that is just as interesting today as it was in the 1960s.

For a film set in the 1960s, they do a good job of capturing the feel of the time. This comes through the sets, costumes, and events they are covering. You feel that tension when it looks like things are about to fall apart in the Cuban Missile Crisis. They also perfectly capture that tension when groups and trends start shifting, and some people get left behind. Of course, the highlights are the big musical performances, which sometimes get played out in full and other times, your expectations get subverted. While generally, the narrative worked, I will say that it began to meander towards the end when you would have liked it to be a bit more focused. Also, I think there were a couple of times when I would have liked the film to have subtitles turned on.

In the end, do we recommend A Complete Unknown? Yes, yes, we would. While it does meander at times. It is a powerful look not just at one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century but at a moment in American musical history. Have you watched A Complete Unknown? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked A Complete Unknown, we would recommend to you The United States vs. Billie Holiday or Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of A Complete Unknown
Directed by – James Mangold
Screenplay by – James Mangold & Jay Cocks
Based on – Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald
Cinematography by – Phedon Papamichael
Edited by – Andrew Buckland & Scott Morri
Production/Distribution Companies – Veritas Entertainment, White Water, Range Media Partners, The Picture Company, Turnpike Films & Searchlight Pictures
Starring – Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Eriko Hatsune, Monica Barbaro, Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, Boyd Holbrook, Joe Tippett, Peter Gray Lewis, David Wenzel, Riley Hashimoto, Eloise Peyrot, Maya Feldman, Reza Salazar, David Alan Basche, James Austin Johnson, Joshua Henry, Norbert Leo Butz, Andy Talen, Eric Berryman, P.J. Byrne, Nick Pupo, Laura Kariuki, Zoe Zien, Will Harrison, Michael Chernus, Jordan Goodsell, Eli Brown, Big Bill Morganfield, Liam Craig, Charlie Tahan & Ian Kagey
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: 14A; Germany: na; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R