PalCinema Review: A Complete Unknown

Timothee Chalamet is pretty mesmerizing as Bob Dylan

December 20, 2024

FILM: A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

DIRECTED BY: JAMES MANGOLD

STARRING: TIMOTHEE CHALAMET, MONICA BARBARO, ELLE FANNING

RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars

By Dan Pal

I was just as surprised as many were when I heard that Timothee Chalamet was playing Bob Dylan in the new film A Complete Unknown. Could he really do it? Since Dylan has been around longer than I have he’s always been out there singing, playing, and aging. I hadn’t thought a lot about who he was in his twenties during the 1960s though but I’m pretty blown away by what Chalamet brings to the part of such an iconic figure. Dylan is brought back to life in a big way and the actor succeeds on all accounts.

It is Chalamet’s performance that appropriately gets the most scrutiny here and it should. There is so much to note about how he’s able to move away from his boy-ish image and play a part that requires an immense amount of skill. What’s noticeable from the start is his physical presence. He’s got the right exterior look with the jacket, scarf, cap, and guitar but then other features begin to stand out. His way of looking down with his dark eyes, his crackling voice, and a mostly sullen expression keeps him entrenched in the persona of the highly introspective Dylan. But then he starts singing and, wow, he really sounds like him! Chalamet spent years perfecting the various inflections that are so associated with Dylan. It’s pretty uncanny to see and hear him on the screen.

Dylan is portrayed as being completely devoted to guitar playing at the expense of various relationships. He becomes a major success in the folk music scene but eventually wants to shift his style and the kinds of songs he wants to write. This creates conflicts with promoters and some of his musician friends, such as Pete Seeger, played to perfection by Edward Norton. It is this arc in Dylan’s life and career that writer/director James Mangold focuses on here – the period roughly from 1961 to 1965 - when he went from acoustic to electric guitar.

The conflicts with the women in his life suggest how mostly unimportant they were to him. Elle Fanning plays Sylvia who sticks with him for a period as he gets involved with other women including fellow singer Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro. Both actresses do a great job of relaying the frustrations the characters have to endure. Barbaro has the additional task of singing as Baez and is quite spectacular in that regard.

To elaborate on Edward Norton as Pete Seeger: This is one of his best performances, in part because it’s so much more calm and nuanced than what we’ve seen in some of his most noteworthy roles in films such as American History X and Birdman. He comes across as a patient, elder representative of a fading folk scene while Dylan is about to branch out in new musical directions. Norton’s stage performance as Seeger is also worth the price of admission.

My main concern with the film is that there are SO many song and performances that they overtake much of the narrative. Surely, we get the point: Dylan is amazing and Chalamet is equally mesmerizing to watch as Dylan. But the film could use deeper insights into Dylan. Perhaps that’s the point of the film’s title. Dylan became a huge phenomenon but people didn’t really get to know what was going on inside the man. To also depict him this way is a bit of a cop out for Mangold though. What really made Dylan tick during this era?

Still, there is a lot to admire about this film. The era is incredibly well captured. New York City, and specifically Greenwich Village, looks as it did then. Walking with Dylan through the streets transports us back to the 1960s. Clubs are crowded and smoky. Apartments are small and cluttered. TVs spout details about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy’s assassination.

Ultimately, what one is likely to get out of the film is that Chalamet is really a great actor and Dylan wrote some great songs. Watching the actor as the singer is pretty powerful. Let this whole experience and era wash over you for its two plus hours of running time.

A Complete Unknown opens on December 25^th.

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