A Complete Unknown Movie Review By Afdah

Throughout A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan laments any attempt to label him. “They should just let me be,” he complains after a party where he felt pressured by everyone in attendance to perform. When pressed for details on what they should let him be, he responds, “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.” He will find exactly what they don’t want him to be when he begins experimenting with electric instruments, a perceived betrayal in the folk music community that comes to a head in the film’s climax, the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Director James Mangold’s reverential piece of American mythmaking that doubles as a Bob Dylan biopic largely plays to Dylan’s desires, leaving the man himself “a complete unknown”, rather exploring his artistry and placing his music at the center of the film. This movie is available to watch on Afdah stream.

‘A Complete Unknown’ Searchlight Pictures

On his first date with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) – a re-named Suze Rotolo – the two watch Now, Voyager with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid. Throughout the film, Mangold will have Sylvie and Bob discuss or reference the film, including Sylvie using Bette Davis’ iconic line, “Don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars,” when she says her final goodbye to Bob in Newport. Most pertinent is a restaurant-set discussion between them after watching the film where they discuss how Bette Davis left home and made herself into, as Bob sees it, “something different.” This is what Mangold showcases as a parallel for Bob, a man who is constantly making himself into “something different” as an artist. He goes where the music takes him, chasing a “spark” then fulfilling it to his end, no matter what the audience or those around him demand. Fame is an unwanted phenomenon, a pair of shackles that restrict him simply living and being in the world and in his artistry. As such, Mangold deploys a fairly atypical approach for a biopic. It is less interested in demystifying the man than in simply elevating the myth. It is mostly centered on performances and recording sessions, showing his artistry in private, his brilliance on stage, and his devil-may-care attitude that created him into a revolutionary and a pariah in equal measure. The dramatic scenes’ only attempts at filling in Dylan’s background do the exact opposite, playing into his often fictionalized past and, aside from calling attention to the fact it is all fake, the film only offers loose definitions of who he was behind the music. This can be somewhat unsatisfactory, while A Complete Unknown can certainly be repetitious in emphasizing just how much of an enigma Bob Dylan is, but like the man himself, A Complete Unknown never tries to be something more defined, flowing along with the music and the historic moments that surround them to be a nostalgia-filled vignette of life along with him in the early 1960s.

It's never hidden that he can be, as Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) puts it, "a bit of a jerk." He's hot-tempered, selfish, arrogant, fixated on who he is or isn't, and doesn't care at all about how he's perceived, but as a byproduct, he's also cruel to others. His relationship with Sylvie is especially evident in his inadequacies and the film's vague details in dramatic moments. One moment he's with Sylvie and cheating on her without her knowledge, and the next he's with another woman who's never introduced and has broken up with Sylvie off-screen. Not much depth is given to Sylvie, Joan, or any of his other romantic relationships. Instead, they're defined solely by their relationship with Bob Dylan, a particularly terrible decision considering Joan Baez's own astonishing talent. A Complete Unknown omits personal details, instead showing Fanning’s anguished expression as he looks on at Bob and Joan Baez at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, trusting the audience to know how her relationship with Bob developed. This works, but Sylvie remains underdeveloped. His relationships with his mentor and friend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and the man who inspired him, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), and his later artistic disagreements with Pete are also covered in enough detail to convey a rough outline. As with Fanning, Mangold leans into Norton’s expressive face to capture the triumphant joy of seeing Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” rousing the crowd, and the triumphant joy of seeing Pete bring folk music to the masses as he’d only dreamed, and Bob’s electrifying anger at “Like a Rolling Stone” dividing the audience.

A Complete Unknown Searchlight Pictures

These elements give A Complete Unknown a solid foundation, but Mangold spares little attention to detail, instead basking in the glory of watching Bob Dylan write and perform his music. This is where A Complete Unknown achieves its greatest success: Chalamet is commanding, embodying not just the voice but the spirit. He goes beyond imitation to truly embody the human being, finding a level of personality and inner expression that captures the essence of who we are. His stage presence is impressive, evolving from a slightly shy young man performing in a smoke-filled nightclub to a bona fide rock n' roll performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with all the rebellious energy of Johnny Cash. This is Chalamet's show, and every performance is moving. As mentioned above, Elle Fanning and Edward Norton bring great humanity to their characters, using their expressive faces to express a lot - Norton also gives a great musical performance as Seger - and Holbrook is smooth and cool as Cash, exuding an aura that's felt long before he even makes it onto the screen.