A Complete Unknown
Year: 2024
Rating: R
Length: 141 minutes / 2.35 hours
While there have been plenty of biopics about Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown (2024) had the benefit of James Mangold directing it. As a director, he’s had a good string of iconic and critically acclaimed movies, including the Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line (2005). Since Mangold clearly knew how to make a movie about a famous musician, the same held true here. Unfortunately, the problem with musician biopics is that these individuals tend to have a major flaw that makes them completely insufferable.
Most of the time, drugs are the weak spot of musicians like Ray Charles in Ray (2004) or the aforementioned Johnny Cash. In A Complete Unknown, success is Dylan’s kryptonite. I appreciated the background and development of the folk music culture in the first half of this movie, but because Dylan’s talent as a musician and songwriter gave him enough success to do what he wanted, he let the success go to his head. Of course, I understand why Dylan would emphasize his interest in being an artist and experimenting over aligning with a certain musical genre’s political baggage.
The casting for this movie seemed weird at first, but Timothée Chalamet definitely gives the right vibe to both pre- and post-success Bob Dylan. Edward Norton’s performance as Pete Seeger was also notable. These actors worked hard at making it look like they were actually playing and singing, which is a nice added detail that isn’t always possible in these kinds of films. Considering Dylan’s distinctive voice (both talking and singing), I think Chalamet nailed those moments where he was performing. So, while it’s not great that Dylan basically turned on those who gave him the chance to make it big, I think Mangold made a great movie about it.
A great James Mangold musician biopic about a semi-annoying Bob Dylan, I give A Complete Unknown 4.0 stars out of 5.
