The title of the biographical Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown, is also the most prominent line in his song ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and equally serves as the topic of James Mangold’s film in three words. In A Complete Unknown, Mangold’s Dylan comes to New York City in 1961 with only the clothes he wears, a guitar, and a name he has chosen for himself. He walks around the neighborhood slowly and without purpose, roaming from one club to the other and from one coffee shop to the other. This dirty child is ignored by everyone. Until they listen to him playing.
Not long after this, Dylan quickly becomes one of the Village’s fans and listeners. A few short years later, he was an extremely popular figure internationally, and amongst other things had reached a level of such influence in society that when he attempted to challenge an overwhelming turn toward folk music that was socially conscious, he had helped popularize, his fans branded him a traitor. What motivated this and other decisions he made during the film A Complete Unknown remains unclear. Dylan as a musician is a brilliant artist. But as a human being, he is still an absolute unknown.
It would seem that A Complete Unknown would be a film that Bob Dylan would approve of, as it does shroud the grace of untold within the subject’s work, as one must certainly suppose, considering the approbation, I find, for this alone, to say nothing of the rest, in regards to one paid, this is altogether not quite as rewarding as it is presumed. Please take note that such lives and legacies don’t get penned in an ordinary fashion as this and that they are also of immense honor and respect in their lifetime.
Most certainly yes, I agree, this type of movie certainly is well constructed. But what makes you ultimately believe after its inception that it adds a lot of value in terms of art to Dylan or his counterparts? What moral does one take from the story other than the fact that he simply followed his creative impulses, wrote great songs, and left everything up to everyone else? These are questions still in my mind even now as I sit here and ponder over this cinematic masterpiece.
As I understand it, Timothy Chalamet performs Bob Dylan’s younger self quite well; and he even sings the part. Unlike Maestro by Bradley Cooper which only focused on the private life and his marriage of the composer Leonard Bernstein, A Complete Unknown also vividly depicts the life of Bob Dylan and the numerous songs he has composed. Nowhere Are The Days portrays Chalamet’s Dylan singing the Song For Woody to Woody Guthrie as well as the Like A Rolling Stone song during a concert in Newport in 1965.
Chalamet plays the music instead of merely voicing the character of Dylan, which is rather easy for him since he is good at deepening himself in a role and adding his particular style to the performance even without the mic. He implements a number of stammers and annoying clips, partial glances, and dodging remarks for his parts. Aside from his uncontrollable brown curly locks, Chalamet doesn’t bear a strong resemblance to Dylan especially when he is compared to the soon-to-be emperor Paul Atreides, who has a very different image than When Chalamet was given the chance to play Wonka. Timothée’s roles, in his opinion, are relatively similar but his chameleon personality is a sight to watch.
Mangold prepares an amazing cast for Chalamet. Edward Norton portrays a frustrated yet impressed Pete Seeger, suggesting what he wishes for the artist and seems to have some envy in regard to the singer. In respect to portraying a young artist, he tries to promote the career of a young folk singer in the mid 60s. In this era, Fanning portrays Sylvie, a fictionalized person whom Dylan adores and who may be the last show business outsider able to establish such a relationship. While in real life she is known for playing Joan Baez she shares a deep passion with Dylan and both of them had a great deal of fun off set as well.
The book “Dylan Goes Electric!” written by Elijah Wald has also inspired the screenplay of A Complete Unknown. The documentary touches upon Dylan’s rise to fame, which annoyed folk singers like Seeger and others at the Newport Folk Festival Remember, whether you get caught up in the struggle for Dilan’s musical name may really depend on how much you care about his back story, or you know how decently the events unfolded in real life.
The filmmakers however appear to possess rather compelling evidence demonstrating that there was no spark or drama. The story continues that A Complete Unknown is more of an affectionate recall of 1960s New York City combined with the social and political movements that made the immense talent famous, he only wanted to go beyond talking and singing about changes around him. Everything was going to change for Dylan.
I suppose Mangold has made the Dylan film he intended to make and to some extent, A Complete Unknown is quite interesting so to speak for it is an intentionally sparse depiction of an enigmatic star. On the other hand, it is not easy to construct a fully rewarding film on a subject that its own director seemingly accepts as a baffling explanation.
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