The Oscar Race Review: “A Complete Unknown”
Don’t think twice, this one’s alright
In 2005, James Mangold directed Walk the Line [3.5/5], a Johnny Cash biopic that for years after became the touchstone for predictably treacly biopics. The difficult upbringing, the struggles to get started, the breakout moment of recognized genius, the downward slide of fame and vice, the final redemption. No matter how well these plot beats are done and no matter how convincing the central performance is, the predictability of movies like Walk the Line made them ripe for mockery and playful derision.
This opened the door wide open for what may be John C. Reilly’s most important work. 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story [4.5/5] offers such effective parody of troubled musician biopics that the big studios put the genre into hibernation for fear of needing to abide by such clearly laughable story beats. God forbid they have to mix it up.
Nearly two decades later, Hollywood decided that it was time to do these kinds of movies again. In short succession, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman were released to bombastically over simplify the careers of Queen and Elton John respectively. Rami Malek won an Oscar for portraying Freddie Mercury in the former film, but all I heard about these movies from friends and people online (having not seen them myself) was a question of if we haven’t seen all this before.
20 years after Walk the Line, director James Mangold has returned from alternating between bangers like 3:10 to Yuma [4/5] and Logan [4/5] and questionable pictures like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [3/5, and I’m probably being generous] and The Wolverine [2/5] to the genre he indirectly helped put on ice.
A Complete Unknown stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, arguably the greatest songwriter of all time, during the course of the enigmatic figure’s first few years of musical prominence. In the film, Dylan becomes ingrained in the artsy New York folk scene at the start of the ‘60s and eventually takes it to new heights of popularity before ultimately rejecting it by plugging his guitar into an amplifier and going electric.1
Mangold, who also wrote the screenplay alongside Jay Cocks, opts out of giving us the whole span of Dylan’s career. This is both out of necessity (the Nobel Prize winner put out an acclaimed album of new music most recently in 2020) and for the sake of focus. By limiting the scope of the film to the years between 1961 and 1965, the director, cast, and crew allow for a more cohesive narrative to form around the central character. Mangold has said he’s not interested in cradle to grave stories (which is a huge lie) and wanted to instead depict this one special period of the artist’s life. This lets the movie have an easier time figuring what it wants to say about Bob Dylan, which the director insists is “nothing” but is clearly “this brilliant genius was kind of a weird asshole.”
You’d think such a derisive take on its legendary subject would be a failure of the movie’s storytelling, but Dylan himself got final approval on the shooting script. The version of the man at the center of A Complete Unknown is aloof, strange, seemingly uninterested in the affairs or interests of anyone else. And yet Dylan himself affirms that this is accurate with his approval. At first I was surprised by this, but then I remembered songs like “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Bob Dylan has been telling us he’s a tough person to be with his entire career. Why stop now?
To that end, Chalamet nails it. As Dylan, he mumbles, rants, jokes, and refuses to acquiesce to anyone’s desire to better know him. The evolution of the character’s actions and body language as the in-movie years progress hint at motivation and a deep internal world, but like all the other characters in the film, we never get any firm answers as to what goes on in that head of his. Chalamet is undeniably Bob Dylan, but it isn’t a straight impression, even if the resemblance is occasionally uncanny. This version of the man is made to be scrutinized on the screen, any frustration that comes from our inability to get his deal intentional parts of the filmmaking.
What elevates this lead performance from “great” to “Best Actor Frontrunner” is that Chalamet (and the rest of the cast) performed all the many songs of A Complete Unknown live on set. This means that for all the times that these songs are played (often in full), our star is singing, playing guitar, and soloing on the harmonica without the fallback of an overdubbed recording. Anyone who doubts Chalamet’s basic musical credentials need only go back and watch his old talent show footage, but this goes above and beyond what’s even necessary for a movie like this.
And it’s not just the songs themselves, as good as they sound. It’s the acting within the performance of tracks like “The Times They Are A-Changing” and “Like a Rolling Stone” that truly blows me away. All the same qualities of Chalamet as Dylan during the dialogue scenes, the simultaneous emotional distance and implications of inner turmoil, carry over when he’s on stage, in the studio, or using music as a way to avoid having hard conversations with the people in his life. This use of music as an advancement and extension of the storytelling I guess makes A Complete Unknown another musical among this crop of Best Picture nominations. Sure, that’s fine.
Chalamet is excellent here, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention his standout co-star. Monica Barbaro absolutely kills it as Joan Baez, imbuing Dylan’s on-again-off-again lover/rival with incredible charm and passion. You buy every emotion she’s selling, Baez lacking Dylan’s ability to keep it all hidden away. And on top of that, she’s also performing all of those songs live. We were enjoying her so much that it got to the point where my wife and I were wishing she was the explicit co-protagonist of the film, rather than just another point on a love triangle. Barbaro is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and I’d absolutely love for her to get it.
Elle Fanning plays the third component of the central love triangle, Sylvie Esso. This character is technically inspired by Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo, but Dylan requested the name change because he didn’t think Rotolo would like all the attention. Sylvie is a sweet character, and her evolving relationship with Dylan serves as an important benchmark for his fame and success, but she’s ultimately not the strongest element of A Complete Unknown. Fanning plays the one normal person in the movie well, but neither she nor her chemistry with Chalamet compares with Barbaro. Again though, Fanning does a good job.
I feel the need to compare the two female leads because the movie’s marketing misled us somewhat going into the theater. As far as we knew, A Complete Unknown would focus heavily on Chalamet and Fanning as a pair, Barbaro’s Baez acting as little more than a period-appropriate secondary character. But Baez and Russo are equally key to this movie’s depiction of Bob Dylan. Each woman spends years trying to understand the man, either as a human being with a past, a songwriter with a method, or both. Each gets closer to this understanding than anyone, but both women are ultimately spurned by our central character’s disposition. Their frustration with Dylan confirms the movie’s intentions: we are not supposed to know who this guy truly is.
Edward Norton’s version of folk icon Pete Seeger comes across as a kindly mentor figure to Dylan. Their relationship doesn’t evolve as dramatically as I think it probably could have, but I liked Seeger’s apprehension just being around Bob at the end. Norton’s a famously prickly actor, so for him to come off as so warm and cuddly speaks wonders to his ability and to this performance. Plus, he’s got a banjo! What else could you need?
Ultimately, A Complete Unknown is a movie carried by a couple of excellent performances and a legendary songbook. If it has major flaws, it’s a lack of cinematic ambition. The care that went into crafting a period accurate West Village is impressive, but the final film looks like…well, another ‘60s period piece. The lighting and color correction are nice, but there’s little in the way of interesting visual storytelling or cinematography.
Similarly, the script’s one trick of limiting the temporal scope is its only truly inspired choice. Other than that, we hit many of those expected story-telling beats. The somewhat-clumsy intrusion of historical events and celebrities (Johnny Cash shows up prominently in the second half, making this a pseudosequel to Walk the Line), the tipping point of disillusioning fame, and the awe-filled stares of people watching our star perform a song when they weren’t expecting anything out of him are done perfectly well. They’re just nothing new.
A Complete Unknown is a nostalgic look back at an important and exciting time through the lens of a fascinating character portrayed through a wonderful performance. This is historically right up the Academy’s wheelhouse when it comes to awarding Best Picture, but those odds might not be so sure this time around. After all, this is the same awards show that’s granted top prize to movies like Parasite [5/5] and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once [5/5] over the past few years. Maybe the big win for Oppenheimer [5/5] portends an Academy that’s back on its bullshit in terms of taste, but I’m not willing to call it yet.
Regardless of if it wins Best Picture or not, I found A Complete Unknown to be about as interesting as a musical biopic can get without breaking the formula too much. A lot of that rests on the performances by Chalamet and Barbaro, but they’re hardly the only good things here. If you’re someone who likes to walk away from a movie with a clear idea of who the main character really is, this won’t really be for you. The title isn’t just a random lyric, after all.
I also don’t know how much you’ll get out of it if you don’t really care much about Bob Dylan, since the movie is fully about him. I’ve been a fan since at least high school and really enjoyed it, but A Complete Unknown isn’t where I’d start as a newcomer. Go listen to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Highway 61 Revisted first to get a rough sense of the movie’s era, then figure out from there if it’s even a subject you’re interested in.2
A Complete Unknown beat my expectations by being better than your average music biopic. More than anything else though, it’s proven to me that Chalamet is the real deal. If he wins that Best Actor award, the critical acclaim will match his commercial dominance over the past couple of years, crowning a true new Hollywood star. If that does happen, I wonder if he’ll keep the rise of Bob Dylan in mind as he moves forward. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’ll be like when Chalamet goes electric.
Rating: 4/5
To give you a sense of how upsetting this was to the people who were there for it, imagine if Olivia Rodrigo used a headlining Coachella set to unveil her new era as a post-hardcore artist. Even if it’s the best post-hardcore ever, the fans who were there to sing along to “Drivers License” probably won’t be thrilled.
Then go listen to more Dylan records. My personal favorite is Blood on the Tracks!