'A Complete Unknown' Carries a Good Tune, But Not Much Heart
A Complete Unknown is the best film where you can run out for a pee and not miss anything. (in my best Bob Dylan singing voice). "How many songs can one hear until it's too many?" James Mangold's A Complete Unknown lacks the essential story elements to make the film known. I get the whole point is to make Dylan more of a mystery whose past you can easily google. But why make a film about someone's music that's so deep so shallow? Many can argue that I don't get the point of the film, but I'd argue back that the director doesn't know the point of the movie or how to express it. A Complete Unknown is more of a jukebox than it is a motion picture about someone's life. That's a shame since there's a lot of talent going on in front and in back of the camera. Unfortunately, a lot of that talent is wasted on half of a script.
The story begins in 1961 with Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) riding somewhere. He's taking notes on the bus, establishing how Dylan is always thinking about music. When we next see him, Bob is paying a visit to an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) Woody can't speak anymore, living his final days in the Hospital. At the Hospital, Bob meets Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). Pete and Woody listen to a song Bob plays. Unable to clap, Woody bangs his hand against the metal tray next to him. He's impressed. From this moment we know Bob Dylan is going to be a sensation.
I thought the intentionally long take on Chalamet doing a Bob Dylan song was meant to carry a purpose to the movie. It does, although it's a very obvious one. Bob Dylan is going to become a legend who had a sound folks haven't heard before. It was also a sound that would rile up the simpletons who enjoy folk music that doesn't challenge its government, oppose any wars, and looks the other way when it comes to civil rights. Bob Dylan made deep folk music, not just simple folk songs. What else do we know about him from the movie? That he's a womanizer. Dylan sleeps around with one woman behind his girl's back when she leaves town. To be fair, he was a nineteen-year-old kid who became famous. With those raging hormones coupled with women being all over you, it's no wonder why he cheated. Although, he is also kind of a jerk. At one point, he tells Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) that her music is about as good as an oil painting hung up in a dentist's office. That's a nice thing to say to a musician who's not on your level of fame.
Minus the condescension and womanizing elements of Dylan, there's not much to him in the movie. He speaks in poetic circles about life and censorship. When performing at the Greenwich Folk Music Festival, he decides to play music that isn't to the residents' liking. Midway through the film, he also refuses to play Blowin' in the Wind, establishing Dylan as a rebel whose cause is to challenge the establishment through music. Not bend to the will of his corporate masters. However, he does start by covering other folk songs before he makes it big. Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere. Nobody is immune to the almighty dollar. The movie is less of an inspection of Bob Dylan's psyche and more of an Oscar vehicle for Timothée Chalamet. Who, I have to admit, is pretty good.
Chalamet looks like Bob Dylan and even sounds like him, especially when he's singing. The canniness of BD isn't quite uncanny, but it doesn't need to be. Tim fits the bill, giving a darned impressive performance that may be the best in the young actor's career. Having a good performance can't help a mediocre movie be more than its stale self. A Complete Unknown is the antithesis of another biopic James Mangold did, Walk the Line. A movie about Johnny Cash with Joaquin Phoenix playing the singer. Oddly, this film not only pays homage to Johnny Cash but makes him part of the story. Is James Mangold so fixated on Johnny Cash that he had to make him part of the story, or were he and Bob Dylan friends in real life?
For all the jokes made about it, Walk the Line was a good, conventional biopic that fell victim to movies like Walk Hard parodying it for its predictability. I would have rather taken a common birth-death biopic over whatever this was. A Complete Unknown is a Bob Dylan movie made for the fans. The causals like me who enjoy Dylan's work but aren't obsessed with it may not like the film. The film is more musical interludes than it is a movie with any fully rounded characters. It's intentionally undramatic to capture the nuance of life but there's not much nuance to be had in this story. The movie will certainly be an Oscar vehicle for Timothée Chalamet but will likely fizzle out over time long after the win if Timothée wins. Other than impressing audiences with its musical numbers, there's a complete numbness of interest in A Complete Unknown.
A Complete Unknown opens in theaters wide on Christmas Day.
