When it comes to his depiction on film, Bob Dylan is hardly a complete unknown. He has had several documentaries made about him, Rolling Thunder Revue, Don’t Look Back, and No Direction Home just to name a few. Then there is perhaps the most interesting fiction film about Dylan, Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There, a postmodern interpretation of the singer. Haynes’s film tells six separate stories “inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan”. His latest biopic, A Complete Unknown, however, takes a more conventional approach, in a film directed by James Mangold, who also made a Johnny Cash biopic.
Mangold’s latest biopic opens with Bob Dylan hitching the ride to New York, the city of dreams, in 1961. Played by Timothee Chalamet, he is a scrawny kid, with slurred speech and oversized clothes, low on money with just the guitar on his back. Dylan isn’t on a quest to make music as such though, but on a search to meet Woody Guthrie, a great of folk music. But as he plays for Woody and Pete Seegar, it seems that the city has other ideas, propelling him to star status. The film covers his young folk career, all the way up until his controversial performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where Dylan’s new music is a betrayal of the genre that brought him fame.
Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan feels like the perfect casting, especially for a younger iteration of the icon. Dylan’s immediate star power mirrors that of Chalamet’s own journey, as undoubtedly the biggest star of his generation. Chalamet isn’t just doing an impression but breathes life and emotion into Dylan, particularly when other people pigeonhole him into a certain identity. The film especially does a good job of making Dylan’s figure darker and darker in costume as he wants to conceal his identity as the film goes on. In this way, Mangold does a solid job of dealing with the identity of Dylan’s music. Transforming from singing folk covers to getting his own lyrics into the world, dealing with political turmoil across the '60s.
A Complete Unknown is an enjoyable time, as a biopic it is palatable, and for the most part a decent watch for its hefty runtime, but is this enough for someone as iconic as Bob Dylan. The big problem of the film is everything moves so fast. Not affording enough time to properly lay out Dylan’s thoughts and let us inside the mind of the genius. It doesn’t do enough to show him as a revolutionary.
The film also underdevelops Dylan’s love interests. Despite great performances by both Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro, Dylan’s relationships feel more like flings than fleshed-out relationships. There is less focus on Dylan’s human aspects, making his achievements less powerful. However, despite this, the rise to greatness and defiant stubbornness just about feels earned.
Overall, A Complete Unknown is a well-made, but serviceable biopic. A little rushed in some aspects leaving the romantic relationships feel like a fling, whilst his rise doesn’t feel meteoric. Nevertheless, its conclusion feels earned, therefore it’s worth a watch.
Комментарии