A Complete Unknown (3 ½ stars out of 4)
A few years back I used to use Bob Dylan in my composition classes to illustrate the difference between text and context. First I’d play the studio version of, “Like A Rolling Stone,” and have my students analyze the lyrics and other musical elements of the track. Then I’d play a live version of the same song from 1966, shortly after he’d “gone electric” and was getting booed at his shows. You could hear someone in the crowd yell out, “Judas!” and detect a sneer in Dylan’s voice as the lyrics of his famous song took on a different meaning.
I don’t know if my students appreciated the lesson as much as I enjoyed giving it, but whatever.
So I had a little extra interest when I arrived to watch “A Complete Unknown,” director James Mangold’s adaptation of the whole “going electric” story. The movie follows Dylan from his inauspicious arrival in New York City in 1961 through his rapid rise to mythic minstrel status, culminating in his abrupt about-face to the folk scene as he plugs in a Fender Stratocaster and makes rock history.
Timothee Chalamet has the unenviable task of portraying Dylan, a man with such distinct mannerisms that it’s hard to bring him to life without coming off like a parody. To his credit, Chalamet does the role justice, and even sings Dylan’s songs at a worthy level.
The “going electric” story is familiar to most anyone with more than a passing knowledge of rock and roll history, but “Complete Unknown” fills in some details and context that has likely escaped anyone outside of the Dedicated Dylan Fan bubble. Typically the story is streamlined into a simple image of rock rebellion, but Mangold gives us more of a sympathetic and understanding view of the folkies Dylan left behind.
Edward Norton plays one of those folkies—musician Pete Seeger—in a standout performance that is especially memorable. Seeger is one of the first people Dylan meets after he arrives in New York City. And when Dylan plays him his first tune, Seeger is tending to another icon, the recently hospitalized Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy).
Thanks to some impressive chops and promising songwriting skills, Dylan rises through the local ranks quickly, and the story feels less about whether he is going to succeed than about what he will do once success arrives. Interestingly, though we see the singer perform on stage, write songs off stage, and explore his relationships with women like Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning)—who appeared with him on the cover of his 1963 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”—and fellow folk icon Joan Baez (a powerful turn by Monica Barbaro), Dylan still comes off as aloof and mysterious.
You could argue that this constitutes a failure of the film in a genre that typically tries to give us a thorough warts-and-all portrayal of its chosen celebrities. But even though “A Complete Unknown” has plenty of warts—you won’t come out of the film thinking of Dylan as a great guy—Mangold seems to be saying that people like Dylan used to be more myth than human, long before social media got us a little too close to our supposed heroes.
So if you’re a Dylan fan, it will be easy to enjoy “A Complete Unknown.” But even if you aren’t, Mangold’s film is an engaging story that captures one of those moments where something as trivial as popular music felt like it meant something more.
“A Complete Unknown” is rated R for profanity and suggestive content.