A Complete Unknown
The Bob Dylan movie catalogue is already crowded. We’ve got Scorsese’s documentaries, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (where six different actors took a shot at Dylan’s trademark mumble), and the head-scratching Masked and Anonymous, where Dylan co-wrote the script under the name 'Sergei Petrov' and played . . . well, himself-ish.
So, does A Complete Unknown bring anything new to the party? Kind of. Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line), it skips the usual music biopic tropes. No cheesy one-liners, no tragic montages set to soaring violins. You won’t hear anyone dramatically whisper, “That’s when I realised . . . the tambourine was my true calling.”
Instead, it’s a solid, no-nonsense musical drama. We meet Dylan in 1961, all full of ambition and harmonica dreams, trying to honour his ailing folk hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). This sparks his creatively and his romance with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), and he even rubs shoulders with Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook).
The performances are where this film shines. Chalamet doesn’t do a Dylan impersonation; he makes it feel real – a mix of cocky charm and awkward genius. Norton is endearingly earnest as Seeger, while Fanning and Barbaro add heart and depth. If you’re here for Dylan’s hits, Chalamet strums and croons like a pro, surrounded by plenty of intense “listening faces” from the crowd.
As well-made as it is, A Complete Unknown plays it safe. Based on Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric! it marches steadily toward the big moment, Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. If you know the story, there aren’t many surprises.
For a movie about a poetic rebel, it doesn’t dig as deep as you might hope. We get glimpses of Dylan wrestling with his talent, late-night songwriting binges, strained relationships, and Joan Baez casually calling him an asshole (accurate). By 1965, he’s hiding behind sunglasses, his mysterious persona locked in place. The film doesn’t pretend to crack the Dylan code. Honestly, it suggests Dylan himself probably never did. That title? Pretty on the nose.
If you’re hoping for a mind-blowing, never-before-seen take on Dylan, this might not be it. But if you’re down for a well-crafted musical drama with killer performances, it hits the mark. As Dylan himself once said, “Don’t criticise what you can’t understand.”
