A COMPLETE UNKNOWN rediscovers the magic of Bob Dylan

Unfortunately, there's not much else to the film

How do you tell the story of Bob Dylan? An artist whose career spans over 60 years and has changed genres a handful of times is hardly someone we’re meant to understand, let alone be able to portray in a neat two hour film.

Yet, that’s the Herculean task that director James Mangold set out to tackle with A COMPLETE UNKNOWN.

Rather than try to give the complete story of Dylan, Mangold smartly chooses to focus on a key timeframe: Dylan’s early career spanning from 1960 to 1965.

An adaptation of Elijah Wald’s biography Dylan Goes Electric, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN tracks the early stages of Dylan as he sees the beginning of his folk music career, his rise to fame, and then the first truly controversial moment for an artist who’s never cared about whether or not he’s stirring the pot: playing electric music at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

If all of that sounds rather low stakes for a biopic about one of the most influential figures in music history, don’t worry. Mangold takes an approach from an early point in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN to craft this film as a bit of a time machine back to the 60’s.

Through some impressive set design, costuming, and iconography, Mangold recreates the folk music scene in 1960’s New York. Through this approach, which rests heavily on some outstanding work from Edward Norton as folk icon Pete Seeger, Mangold introduces the audience to the folk music world and, in doing so, illustrates just why Bob Dylan became such a powerful messenger for the movement.

Carrying the film, of course, is Timothee Chalamet as Dylan. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve never cared much for Chalamet, but he completely disappears into the role. From the very first scene, Chalamet has the quirky, apathetic cockiness nailed to a tee. And when he starts to sing, you’d be forgiven for believing that Chalamet is simply lip-syncing. There are moments where you can tell it’s Chalamet, not Dylan, but the lines blur enough to make this a convincing portrayal of a larger than life figure.

That helps serve Mangold’s goal: presenting Dylan as The Next Big Thing, the man whose songwriting is so unique and special that he’s going to put folk music on the map. And he does exactly that throughout the first half of the film, becoming a star and bringing countless fans to the genre.

Historians and Dylanologists know what’s coming, though, and the same free-thinking contrarianism that once drew Dylan to folk music pushes him to test the boundaries and experiment with something new: electric music. Because of the groundwork that is laid in the first half of the film, the stakes feel much more real by the time Dylan takes the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and begins to play “Like a Rolling Stone.”

In that, the film offers a thought-provoking question: what happens when revolutionaries try to define their own revolution? The political influences of folk music are only lightly touched on, but enough to get the point across that folk music at the time was very concerned with speaking truth to power and questioning authority.

So what happens when one of their own questions the authority that defines what folk music is? If the message of “Like a Rolling Stone” would be accepted all the same if no electric instruments were used, why does it matter what instruments are used? This is beautifully foreshadowed earlier in the film when Dylan performs “The Times They Are a-Changin’” at the same festival in Newport to overwhelming acclimation.

It’s a fascinating thing to ponder, but the movie doesn’t really offer much of an answer, instead letting each viewer decide for themselves where the line should be drawn.

Mangold seems more interested in honoring the title of the film anyway. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN draws from a line in “Like a Rolling Stone,” but it goes beyond that. Dylan is a music icon, but in 2024 there aren’t exactly a ton of people who would list him off as their favorite artist. Just about everyone has heard the name, but among the moviegoers who would flock to the theater to see Timothee Chalamet, Dylan may as well be a complete unknown.

In that respect, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN succeeds in accomplishing its goal: helping a modern audience to rediscover the magic of Dylan and reintroduce his music to a brand new generation.

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t go beyond that. While Chalamet nails the enigma that was Dylan’s personality, the film doesn’t go deeper than that. We don’t get a peek inside his mind or ever really feel like we know who he is or why he’s doing what he’s doing. Rather than leaving the audience feeling as if they just learned everything there is to know about Dylan, we’re left feeling like we just got to see him perform and briefly interact with us while wishing he were somewhere else.

That’s all well and good, especially since the film isn’t really trying to explore the deepest motivations of this mythical being. It does subvert expectations from the typical biopic approach, though I’m not sure in a good way.

As great as Chalamet and Norton are in this film, the two leading women deserve plenty of praise too. Elle Fanning plays Sylvie Russo, a technically fictional character based on real life Suze Rotolo, whose name Dylan requested be changed for the film.

Sylvie primarily exists in the film as a plot device for Dylan. Through her eyes, we get to see what makes Dylan so attractive and what makes him so difficult of a person to love. Fanning isn’t given much to work with from the script, but her performance imbues Sylvie with enough raw emotion for audiences to latch onto while they’re unable to really grasp who Dylan is.

Monica Barbaro steals the show as Joan Baez, a fellow rising star in the folk music scene who performs several now-iconic duets with Dylan, and also has an inconsistent romance with him. Barbaro completely inhabits the role, more so than Chalamet does, and offers plenty of reasons to be excited for what’s next in her young career.

Johnny Cash makes a couple appearances, portrayed by the wildly underappreciated Boyd Holbrook. Ironically, Cash gets about as much characterization as Dylan in this one, and Holbrook transforms into the country rock icon, beautifully capturing his persona and the demons that haunt him. It’s a glorified cameo, but Holbrook knocks it out of the park.

At the end of the day, if you’re a big Bob Dylan fan, you’re going to get a kick out of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. The film doesn’t break any new ground, but it offers plenty of nostalgia and some extremely well done covers of Dylan’s early music.

If you’re not a Bob Dylan fan, and don’t really know much about him, this will help break down some of the myth. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN seems primarily concerned with introducing Dylan to the modern world, and it mostly succeeds at doing just that.

Don’t expect anything more, though, or you’ll be let down once the awe of Chalamet’s vocal transformation wears off.

Rating: ★★★☆☆