Review: 'A Complete Unknown'
- Drew Moniot
- Dec 25, 2024
- 3 min read
One of the best movies of 2024 is A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as the folksinger Bob Dylan.
The biopic, inspired by actual events, traces Dylan’s rise to fame, from his arrival in New York City in 1961, as a complete unknown, to his infamous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, when he shocked and angered his fans by performing with an electric guitar in a staunchly traditional venue that only permitted acoustic instruments. It shook the musical world like an atomic bomb test.
A Complete Unknown was co-written and directed by James Mangold whose earlier movies include 2005’s Walk the Line, a biopic of another pop music rebel, Johnny Cash. As it turns out, Johnny Cash is also a character in A Complete Unknown, having been an early fan and supportive friend of the young folk singing prodigy.
The film is brilliant, with a sense of authenticity and reality rarely seen in musical biopics. The lead actors all sing and play their instruments on camera, convincingly channeling their respective characters and performances (Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash). That, in itself, sets A Complete Unknown apart from other musical biopics.
In Selena (1997), Jennifer Lopez lip synched the famous voice of Selena Quintanilla. Though J Lo is a talented singer in her own right, the choice of using Selena’s very familiar voice made sense. Like all the great pop stars, Selena was unique and incomparable.
This all becomes more problematic when the subject of the biopic is still alive as was the case with 2019’s Rocketman, based on the life of Elton John who was, and is, very much alive. You could argue that Elton’s voice is even more familiar to multi-generational fans worldwide, though the decision was nevertheless made that the movie’s star, Taran Egerton, would sing Elton John’s iconic songs. Incidentally, there is now a documentary about Elton John called Elton John: Never Too Late coming out next month.
It’s a dicey decision replacing the voice of a very famous living artist, and begs the question, “Why?” In the end, Taron Egerton never really captured the voice, spirit or energy of the pop superstar he was portraying. It only underscored the fact that there is only one Elton John.
When James Mangold was writing and developing A Complete Unknown there was always the option to use Bob Dylan’s actual recordings. Dylan’s very distinctive voice and style would have been a major challenge for any young actor. Love it or hate it, no one sounds like Bob Dylan.
Finding someone who could sing like Dylan and play guitar like Dylan as well as someone who actually looked like a young Bob Dylan had to be a daunting, if not impossible task. To his credit, Timothée Chalamet did the impossible.
While Chalamet has gained attention in movies like Call Me by Your Name (2017), Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch (2021), Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) or Paul King’s Wonka (2023), he may not have convincingly embraced and completely connected with a character like he does in A Complete Unknown. It is his best performance.
The movie takes us back in time and threads Dylan’s story through the broader context of the times. The Kennedy assassination, the racial unrest, and the looming war in Vietnam were events that shaped Dylan’s songs, making him the pop poet laureate of his generation. His fans included his most famous contemporaries, among them The Beatles who recognized and admired his genius.
A Complete Unknown is a compelling, entertaining tale, even if all if it isn’t completely true. What is true in the film is Dylan’s astounding body of work -- songs that are the essential playlist of the Sixties and beyond. We know them by heart. They are embedded in our minds and our souls.
The movie captures all that. It is the joyous story of raw talent and determination crushing everything in its path. In A Complete Unknown, the good guy wins in the end. He’s the outcast that succeeds against all the odds, never selling out.
In the final credits, the movie reminds us that Dylan was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his contributions to music and American culture. He famously did not attend the ceremony.
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