Films for Breakfast

I really thought 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story would put an end to musical biopics, but alas, they continue to come out. It’s easy to be cynical to them as Dewey Cox firmly paints to the audience that there is a formula to making them – and how tired it is when you finally realize how similar they all are. However, every once and a while a film like Rocketman or Tick, Tick… Boom! will come out that reminds me that there are interesting ways to tell these stories. Bob Dylan is a bit of an enigma as an artist and a person, despite his undeniable talent (I, myself, am a massive fan) – his coldness to fame makes him both a fascinating and difficult portrait for this type of film. Yet, despite that, A Complete Unknown exists and taps into that very enigma of Dylan for its core tone and purpose for existing.

A Complete Unknown begins in early 1960s New York, as a 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives on the vibrant music scene all the way from Minnesota with nothing but his guitar and talent. The film explores Dylan as he forms and grows intimate relationships throughout his rise to fame, and his growing restlessness to the folk movement. Director Paul Schrader recently said in a review of this film, that you could take any era of Bob Dylan’s life and make a movie out of it – I 100% agree with that assessment. However, A Complete Unknown is based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! where the central focal point is Bob’s decision to transition from acoustic to electric – which I think is one of the most defining points of his career, due to the lasting implications it had on the industry as a whole.

When I first heard that they were not only making a Bob Dylan film, but that this was the part of his life it was focusing on, I was both apprehensive and excited all at once. For starters, it’s so incredibly easy to screw up biopics – but in my mind, the transition from acoustic to electric seemed incredibly niche and not thematically rich in my mind.. at least not in a way that can sustain an entire film. Thankfully, the film brought in heavy hitters such as director James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet to play Dylan, immediately earning the film some credit out of the gate. And now that I’ve seen it, I think they absolutely nailed it.

To get it out of the way, Timothée Chalamet is absolutely remarkable as Bob Dylan. His commitment to singing the music himself is not something that can be ignored, as it adds a ton to the concert and intimate moments of the film – you truly feel like you’re watching a portrait of an artist rather than another movie. But even aside from those big tasks as a performer, it’s the small mannerisms that Chalamet incorporates into his performance that make all the difference. It’s the moments between him and people like Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), Sylvie Russo (Ellen Fanning), Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), or Pete Seger (Edward Norton) – all trying to get to know and understand Dylan in their own way, that make all the difference. Chalamet brilliantly conveys the genius behind the talent, but also the apprehension to his own fame, fans, and most intimate of relationships. He is an enigmatic artist through and through, and thus, we have a film that many might find too cold to love.

However, as a fan of Bob Dylan, I genuinely cannot imagine this film being any different. James Mangold absolutely nails not only the motions of the story, giving each moment in this point in history its due thematically, but also in just a core understanding of Bob Dylan as a person. The film is incredibly lively with genuinely fantastic musical numbers (the third act concert sequence is an all-timer) as well as snappy dialogue and hefty dramatic moments. Yet, unlike other films from the same genre, it never feels like it overstays its welcome or overdramatizes certain moments in Dylan’s life. It all feels incredibly honest and realistic.

Settling in at a hefty 141-minutes, A Complete Unknown requires its viewers to be fully invested in this time in music history and Bob Dylan’s place in it. However, if you find this piece of history to be intriguing and can appreciate top-notch performances, A Complete Unknown is quite the winner. It stands as one of my favorite musical biopics of all-time, and I think it completely services Bob Dylan in a brilliant way – portraying him warts and all. This is how it should always be done.

4/5