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Film Review: A Complete Unknown (2024)

Writer's picture: Bryan LoomisBryan Loomis

Author: Bryan Loomis


A Complete Unknown shows us a Bob Dylan with his rough edges sanded off. Dylan was a provocateur in this time period, and a real asshole at times. A Complete Unknown preserves some of this behavior, but takes great pains to show why it's justified so that you're always on Dylan’s side. We can empathize with A Complete Unknown’s Dylan at every point. But in reality, as captured in Pennebaker’s remarkable doc Dont Look Back, Bob Dylan was a lot more complicated. Trying to empathize or understand his behavior challenges our views of politeness and courtesy. It is something to legitimately wrestle with - is he an antisocial asshole or is he a visionary who is appropriately responding to the hypocrisies of the world? Man on the Moon would have been a good example of a biopic that presents a complicated portrayal like this, but A Complete Unknown isn't really interested in that. It's a fine movie, but it really missed an opportunity to be a great movie.


The other tricky thing about portraying Dylan is that he's an enigma. You can either give him a character arc with a lot of interiority or you can preserve the mystery that makes him Dylan. A Complete Unknown mostly chooses the latter, and it's probably the right way to go but it does end up feeling a little stagnant. It fills the gaps with lots of songs and performances, along with an ensemble of characters and storylines that mostly happen around Dylan. Those are solid gap fillers, as Dylan’s songs are very good and his story is interesting.


The songs are also actually being performed by the actors here, which is not only impressive but also provides a much needed layer of authenticity and immersion into the folk scene of the 60s. Chalamet both convinces as Dylan and is unique enough to be an interesting musician in his own right. He's pretty magnetic when he's on the screen even when he's not singing too, particularly in delivering the little verbal barbs Dylan is so good at. Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro are also very good in their respective musical roles, flashing talent. I like that Norton took this role that's a little softer and emotional, at times he’s a little too earnest and forgiving but that isn't entirely his fault, it's more on the writing. That writing is mostly to blame for this movie missing out on its potential for greatness, as it intentionally dumbs down this story to make it more digestible to audiences instead of challenging them. But I'm never gonna be mad about hearing Bob Dylan’s songs for a couple of hours.

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