‘Complete Unknown’ Entertainingly Perpetuates Dylan’s Myth

Bob Dylan is the voice of a generation. His poetic songwriting has fueled movements, stimulated social change, and shifted the way we think about folk music. In addition to being the first and only musician to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Dylan’s life and work have inspired countless narrative films and documentaries, but it’s nearly impossible to find a “straightforward” biopic chronicling Dylan’s rise to fame — his mysterious past and inscrutable nature defy such an approach.

It was only a matter of time before mainstream Hollywood took a stab at it, but even then, there’s no way a Dylan biopic could follow the traditional paint-by-numbers formula utilized by films like “Walk the Line” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (and subsequently mocked by parodies like “Walk Hard” and “Popstar”). It’s the same reason there hasn’t been a high-profile Hollywood adaptation of the Beatles’ story (at least, not yet). These figures are so monumental and intrinsically foundational to the history of music that they are far more difficult to represent than, say, Elton John or Johnny Cash.

James Mangold, who directed the Cash biopic “Walk the Line,” is as good a filmmaker to tackle Dylan as any other. He has experience in the music world, he’s worked with many a movie star, and he’s as well-versed in shattering conventions as he is in playing into them. After reviving the “Indiana Jones” franchise last year (admittedly to mixed reception), any biopic Mangold produced would, at the very least, be noteworthy.

“A Complete Unknown” charts Bob Dylan’s life from his arrival in New York in 1961 through his initial relationships (including with Joan Baez, played here with a quiet ferocity by Monica Barbaro) to his revolution against the status quo in 1965 when he “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival. Of course, that moment now lives in legend, but at the time it was controversial and bold, a firm declaration that the state of folk music couldn’t be sustained forever. Something needed to change, and Bob Dylan was the harbinger.

Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet, who has only been amassing more star power after a series of calculated career decisions. Not only has he worked with some of the best modern auteurs, he’s starred in tentpole blockbusters like “Dune” and “Wonka.” “A Complete Unknown” only boosts that persona, showcasing his unique skill in capturing a living legend in appearance, voice and song in equal measure. He plays Dylan nonchalantly and confidently, translating everything controversial and infuriating about the man into a thoughtful and compelling performance.

It’s in the substance of the film that I began to struggle. It doesn’t seem at all interested in who Dylan is as a person, choosing to focus more on his abstract reaction to events happening around him. That is its own form of characterization, but with a figure as totemic as Bob Dylan, it feels almost like a cheat to avoid direct development and instead place the description of the character in the hands of those he interacts with. “A Complete Unknown” is not just the title of the film or a reference to a lyric — it’s a testament to the fact that Dylan is unknowable, enigmatic, arrogant and at some points quite fallible and nasty. In an effort to circumvent the aforementioned traditional biopic traps, “A Complete Unknown” finds itself in fascinating new territory, appropriately embracing the paradox of Bob Dylan but falling short of following through on its central ideas. Then again, if you follow every mildly frustrating dialogue scene with a captivating performance of one of the greatest songs ever written, I’m pulled right back in. It was a very bizarre experience overall.

Another central component of the film is Dylan’s relationship with folk musician Pete Seeger, played by Edward Norton. “A Complete Unknown” portrays Seeger as an empathetic and kind man stuck in the past, willing to maintain the status quo to preserve the kind of folk music he believes should endure forever. He’s not a villain, but if Dylan is the protagonist, Seeger is the closest thing the film has to an antagonist. In fact, given the exasperation and annoyance of nearly every character in the film towards Bob Dylan, he might be both the film’s protagonist and antagonist, which is an even more fascinating stance for the film to take.

Questionable structure aside, “A Complete Unknown” is a very interesting piece of art. It seeks to deconstruct the story of Bob Dylan while maintaining the legend. Art like this, that perpetuates the mysteries of our modern world, is far more likely to join the ranks of immortality itself through the very merit of its association with the unknown. Mangold’s film, inscrutable as it is, makes the right choices to cement its legacy. Timothée Chalamet is a movie star, Bob Dylan is still a legend, and his music will outlive us all.