A Complete Unknown

Timothée Chalamet

James Mangold's A Complete Unknown is a satisfying film, worthy of the plaudits it has received. The script by Mangold and Jay Cocks, based on Elijah Ward's Dylan Goes Electric, wisely restricts its purview to the four years between Dylan's move to New York City and his plugged in performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The focus is on the embrace of Dylan by the folk music community and Dylan's eventual estrangement from the orthodoxies of that movement. Even with the film's narrow focus, there is a lot left out: no Ramblin' Jack Elliott, no Paul Clayton, no Mavis Staples, no Suze Rotolo abortion, no Tom Paine Award speech, no Beatles, and no drugs. Naturally, you can't include everything in a two hour film, though I kinda feel the absence of Bob's copious consumption of reefer and speed in this period was the price Mangold had to pay for Dylan's cooperation. Nevertheless, Dylan's pallor and nocturnal habits in the second half of the film provide enough of a clue to what was going on with Bobby after he hit it big.

Even with the director of Walk the Line at the helm, I honestly thought that this project was going to be the usual biopic debacle. Surely Chalamet was too tall and too lightweight of a performer to portray the Nobel laureate. I stand corrected. Chalamet fully inhabits his role and is especially convincing as a musical performer. Even Dylan detractors like Leonard Maltin can grok the songs now that the nasal whine of the Bobster is lessened. As good as Chalamet is, for me the outstanding performance of the film is Edward Norton's uncanny impersonation of Pete Seeger. Norton's rendering of Seeger's basic decency and timbre is completely dead on. Indeed, A Complete Unknown is a feast of supporting performances that conjure the historical figures without resorting to impersonation: including Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth, and Norman Leo Butz as Alan Lomax. The only actor I was not satisfied with was Elle Fanning as the Suze Rotolo stand-in called here by the name of Sylvie Russo. This is not entirely Fanning's fault. Rotolo was an Italian-American red diaper baby and Fanning just seems too much of a WASP for the role. If I have a slight criticism of the film is that its heavy use of recreated musical performances tends to ameliorate the drive of the narrative. When the script shows real life events intersecting with the legend of Bob Deity, like the sequence of Dylan regarding his neighbors watching President Kennedy address on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Mangold's subtle touch reaps dividends. I'm a big Dylan fan, so the more poetic musings of a Martin Scorsese or a Todd Haynes to me better capture the complexities and profundity of the subject. However, if someone who was ignorant of the life and work of the bard from Hibbing wanted to watch a film to learn about the man and his music, I'd unhesitatingly recommend A Complete Unknown.