A Complete Unknown – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – James Mangold
Writers – James Mangold, Jay Cocks, Elijah Wald
Stars – Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning

Director James Mangold (Logan 2017, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 2023) begins his biopic of the young Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) with him as an unknown visiting his hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in hospital. Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) is also visiting Guthrie who is, through ill health, severely disabled. Seeger persuades Dylan to sing for his hero and Dylan transfixes both Guthrie and Seeger. It is an enchanting beginning. The film moves chronologically forward. He becomes captivated by one Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) who after a while begins to realise she knows nothing about Dylan, not least his real name. Meanwhile, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) enters his life, both professionally and amorously. Inevitably, Dylan has complicated emotional relationships to handle but all the while he is writing his poetry and music.

The dramas in his life are played out against the then geopolitical events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ongoing Black Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War which are shown by contemporary news clips.  As Dylan’s artistic inventiveness leads him away from his folk origins, he comes into conflict with Seeger and Baez. His admiration for Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) is apparent as Dylan charts his own course which eventually leads to Newport in 1974, when he insists on playing an electric guitar to the fury of the keepers of folk puritanism.

Chalamet magnificently captures Dylan in all his complexity. Mangold has him singing complete songs. He is magnetic and because the film is so clearly rooted in the political maelstrom of the time he transports you firmly into the world of the 1960s and early ’70s. Chalamet’s performance as a singer is a major contributing factor to the recreation of that very different time which now seems almost golden.  Barbaro as Baez is a fine complementary force and when they sing together you are transported back in time.

This is a masterful glimpse into the early years of Dylan’s unique success. Chalamet and Barbaro make one think you are watching the original performers. We are now fifty years on from the events which are depicted here, and it is a distant world. It is a film of great substance and worthy of the phenomenon that is Bob Dylan.