“A Complete Unknown” Shines Like Star

A Complete Unknown (James Mangold, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

Born in 1941, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan made quite the splash when he arrived on the music scene in the early 1960s. Though initially taken for the bright young champion that the American folk scene needed to keep the flame going, he eventually broke away in the middle of the decade, adopting electric instruments in place of acoustic ones. Always a maverick, Dylan just did his thing, leaving others to interpret his words and actions. Almost more poet than musician (though decidedly both), he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, cementing his place as one of the most important artistic figures of the 20^th century.

In his new film, A Complete Unknown, director James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) turns his attention to Dylan’s initial ascent, beginning with his journey from his native Midwest to New York in 1961 and ending in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival where he upset some fans with his electric set. For those with a passing knowledge of the era, the movie is great fun, offering fascinating portraits of the great luminaries of that time (and before and beyond), including Woody Guthrie—of “This Land Is Your Land” fame—Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and of course, Dylan himself. Great performances mix with engaging mise-en-scène and the result is a very entertaining romp through time. Even viewers with little to no idea of Dylan or the others should still walk away with a solid appreciation for the narrative (and hopefully a desire to listen to the original versions of the songs we hear played by the actors within). Although if the movie has a weakness, it’s that it can come across a little too much like inside baseball, at times.

Timothée Chalamet (The French Dispatch) stars as Dylan, and is quite fine in the role, slouching and mumbling his way towards celebrity with a combination of principled idealism and youthful arrogance, as well as a growing self-assurance (watch D.A. Pennebaker’s seminal 1967 documentary Don’t Look Back for a glimpse of the real-life Dylan of the ‘60s). The actors who especially stand out, however, are Edward Norton (Motherless Brooklyn) as Pete Seeger (prosthetic nose and all) and Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) as Joan Baez; this latter’s voice is a marvel, much like that of the woman she incarnates. Scoot McNairy (Nightbitch) plays Guthrie (suffering from Huntington’s disease by this point), Boyd Holbrook (Vengeance) plays Cash, and Elle Fanning (Teen Spirit) plays Sylvie, a stand-in for Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s girlfriend early in his time in New York, who appears with him on the cover of his second studio album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (the one that truly launched his career). Everyone holds their own.

The movie begins as Dylan shows up in the city, looking for Guthrie, whose music he worships, only to find out that he is hospitalized in New Jersey. Once there, he meets his idol, along with Seeger, who brings him home—after the youngster wows the older men with a tribute song to Guthrie—since Dylan has no place to stay. Thus begins an initially warm relationship between Seeger and Dylan, which later turns (mildly) contentious as the onetime apprentice seeks to spread his wings. Still, Seeger—well-established both as a progressive force and a folk hero—is the one who introduces Dylan around town, thereby easing his path. The eventual highs that the newcomer reaches, though, are due to his brilliance, and his alone.

Along the way, Dylan meets both Sylvie and Baez, in that order, sleeping with them both (in that order) and not behaving all that well, even as the already-famous Baez sings his songs, helping to popularize them (with that heavenly voice of hers). He chafes at the restrictions of the folk community, the record industry, and the public at large. Still, based on how carefully he cultivates his shaggy, sunglasses-adorned look atop his motorcycle, he probably enjoys the attention as much as he hates it.

Mangold gives us a look inside the man as he develops, even as he spreads the cinematic love evenly among the cast. He seems more interested in the seismic repercussions of Dylan’s impact than in getting to know his subject too well. Hence, he focuses more on how other people react to Dylan’s talent than on the inner-workings of the man’s brain. Don’t think twice, however. This approach is all right, for we feel the power of the songs and embrace the revolution. The times, they once were a-changin’, and A Complete Unknown shows us how and why, with all the magic that entails.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.