A Complete Unknown (2024)
Directed by: James Mangold
Premise: A biopic of musician Bob Dylan, focusing on the period between 1961 and 1965 in which Dylan debuted on the folk music scene and became a cultural icon.
What Works: A lot of musical biopics follow the predictable pattern of a showbusiness cautionary tale in which the protagonist goes from rags to riches to rehab. A Complete Unknown takes a different approach. The film profiles Bob Dylan’s life at a critical point in his career with Dylan making a name for himself in the folk music scene but artistically constricted by the expectations of the industry, fans, and the folk music establishment. The tension between this outside pressure and Dylan’s desire to grow as an artist gives this musical biopic a fresh approach that suits the figure at the center of it. Dylan is the perpetual outsider but his success prevents him from moving freely in society and Dylan finds that the fans and folk music establishment have a rigid set of expectations that would require him to keep making the same music for the rest of his life. A Complete Unknown is subversive in the way it positions the artist not only against the commercial forces that require the sameness of easy commodification but also against the fans and cultural enforcers who resist creative evolution. It’s a conflict faced by any popular artist and it is especially relevant to the contemporary scene in which corporate media chases fan approval to a fault, creating remakes and imitations of past successes. A Complete Unknown succeeds as a period piece, recreating the early 1960s with a lot of detail, and effectively puts us in the atmosphere and politics of the era in an organic way. Timothée Chalamet is terrific as Bob Dylan. He gets Dylan’s shifty demeanor and Chalamet performs the songs in a way that sounds enough like Dylan to be convincing. Also impressive are Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and especially Monica Barbaro as fellow folk singer Joan Baez. In fact, A Complete Unknown does a service to Baez, raising the profile of a significant musical artist who isn’t as familiar to contemporary moviegoers as Dylan.
What Doesn’t: Bob Dylan is known as an unconventional figure but A Complete Unknown is a generally conventional biopic. It doesn’t follow the showbusiness cautionary tale formula but it is produced in a straightforward style and does not challenge Dylan’s public image. Like similar biopics, A Complete Unknown reinforces the myth around the man and protects the value his music catalog. As the title implies, A Complete Unknown doesn’t offer much insight into Bob Dylan as a person. He’s kept at a distance which preserves his mystique. The film runs a bit long and it occasionally features musical sequences that showcase Dylan’s songs but don’t necessarily serve a storytelling function.
Bottom Line: A Complete Unknown is a successful tribute to Bob Dylan and it dramatizes a critical period in his career. It’s produced with a conventional approach but the implications of the story for music and media have a subversive quality that’s in keeping the spirit of Dylan’s work.
Episode: #1030 (January 5, 2025)