By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter
Movie Review
A Complete Unknown
Directed by James Mangold
YET ANOTHER biopic of a beloved musician has hit the big screen, this time inviting longtime Bob Dylan fans to revisit their favorite songs, and younger audiences to get to know the 1960s icon.
This picture of a mysterious counterculture legend, who arrives to fame in New York as if out of nowhere (well, actually, Minnesota), employs the usual storytelling devices we’ve all seen before in other music biopics. While Bob Dylan is a uniquely singular personality, Mr. Mangold’s standard filmmaking renders this supposedly revolutionary character and intriguing arc within folk music, a bit flat.
One thing must be made clear, though. This is not a dig at all at Timothée Chalamet’s acting ability. Taking on the physicality, mannerisms, and distinct voice of Mr. Dylan with ease, he embodies the self-absorbed, nonchalant energy that made him appealing to people at the time. Perhaps the only criticism of his performance is that he’s too well-known to millennials and Gen Zs at this point so it’s difficult to disentangle Mr. Chalamet’s boyish charm from that of young Mr. Dylan’s. He never truly “disappears” into the role, as is the expectation with biopics. While his descent into the spirit of the freewheelin’ folk rock icon is clear and admirable, many may argue that there is no point recreating the man’s singular enigmatic charm, except to reshape the existing one that Mr. Chalamet has, as best he could. In any case, the Academy has deemed his performance Oscar nomination-worthy, and the Screen Actors Guild recently awarded him Best Actor for it, in a milestone that Mr. Chalamet said he considers part of his “pursuit of greatness.”
Made for those who already know what a legend Bob Dylan is, the film wastes no time in letting us know that he has unimaginable depths to him that are futile to explore — and so, we must focus on the impact of his music on the world, and of his stubborn personality on the people around him.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, except for the fact that we’ve already seen it done in a more creative, truly ambitious way with Todd Haynes’ 2007 take on Mr. Dylan’s multifaceted character in I’m Not There, where six different actors portrayed various aspects of his life and music (namely Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Richard Gere, and Marcus Carl Franklin). There are also the two excellent, deep-dive documentaries on Mr. Dylan made by Martin Scorsese — 2005’s No Direction Home and 2019’s Rolling Thunder Revue.
Stacked against a larger-than-life music figure whose tale has been told masterfully many times before, Mr. Mangold instead paints a clean, detailed picture of the vibrant folk music scene, and how it interweaves with the cultural upheaval that was going on in 1960s America. Armed with a guitar and a pen that would eventually be used to create extremely poignant (and later Nobel Prize-winning) pieces of music, the contrarian Bob Dylan and his path to stardom becomes a transformation into an agent of change for the tumultuous times.
Aside from Mr. Chalamet’s decent portrayal, praise must be heaped on Monica Barbaro, who is radiant as singer-songwriter Joan Baez, an icon herself that becomes the all-to-pretty foil to Mr. Dylan’s contrarian ways. Another supporting character to note is Edward Norton’s take on Pete Seeger, who starts off as a gentle, nurturing pillar of folk music — until he subverts expectations and his resentment towards the uncontrollable force of nature that is Bob Dylan grows and grows. The beautiful Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo (a character based on his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo) turns in a heartbreaking performance of a woman caught in the crosshairs, failed romantically by a man occupied with seemingly greater things.
A realization about Mr. Chalamet’s casting is that his real-life persona as a serious, sensitive artist and heartthrob really channels that aspect of Mr. Dylan more than other depictions before this. Female audience members who are attracted to self-absorbed, noncommittal artsy types with disheveled hair and clothes must beware, for this film captures that energy perfectly. This allows Barbaro, Norton, and Fanning, as actors portraying the people on the other ends of his unpredictable relationships, to have their brief moments to shine.
Being based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald provides the film with a solid backbone of the musician’s journey experimenting with the folk genre. Mr. Mangold and Jay Cocks’ adapted screenplay leans into the sense of this enigmatic man making waves, as a newcomer and then as a star, with the people at the time caught in the trajectory of his impact. Those deep into Bob Dylan lore will also find it apt that the film is bookended by brief moments of meeting his real-life inspiration, Woody Guthrie (played by Scoot McNairy), shown on his deathbed throughout the events that take place.
Memorable tunes such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin,’” with Mr. Chalamet’s voice imitating Mr. Dylan’s, convey a thoughtful attempt to distill the original music in the recreation. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” is a personal favorite, along with all of Dylan and Baez duets, especially “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” but what it most successfully does is inspire audiences to listen to the real stuff afterward and bask in just how great the music is.
It’s beguiling to watch the quieter scenes of Mr. Chalamet’s Dylan writing songs at night, hair tousled with his old guitar in hand, either in his New York flat or after a night with Barbaro’s Baez (the inexplicable pull between the two in this fleeting affair simply electric to behold). All of this, in contrast to the sociopolitical and cultural turmoil that often swirled around them, in the streets or on TV reports, drive home just how serendipitous it is that Bob Dylan had such resonant music that came forth right at a time the world needed it. Even if it has a biographical approach that feels too safe to appropriately mirror the evocative nature of Mr. Dylan’s life and work, A Complete Unknown is proof of his impact that people still like to remember today.
A Complete Unknown is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide.
