A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan was guaranteed to be a blockbuster hit. After the buzz of Wicked and Gladiator II died down, Chalamet’s press tour and opening weekend were proving to satiate the public.
Part of the film was shot in my city, Hoboken, NJ, where I got to witness Chalamet himself. And being that my father is a Bob Dylan fan, I found myself agreeing to see the film despite not being a personal fan of Dylan.
With that being said, I still appreciate old music. Austin Butler’s performance of Elvis had me and my friends in an “If I Can Dream” frenzy. I worship Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac like the rest of the world. But I also know when a movie falls flat.
There was nothing wrong with the acting. My father said it was the closest a person could get to Dylan without being Dylan himself. Elle Fanning, as muse Sylvie Russo, and Monica Barbaro as lover-turned-enemy Joan Baez did an impeccable job channeling important figures in Dylan’s life.
I love a good groundbreaker in music. I loved how Johnny Cash told him to track mud on the carpet. But…again, it fell short of exceptional.
So was I livid when Chalamet did not win the Golden Globe for his performance? No. I wasn’t too surprised, because I don’t think every biopic actor needs to be overly-rewarded.
Yes, he’s one of, if not the biggest movie star on the planet right now…but this will not be the performance that solidifies him as “a leading man.”
Paul Atreides in Dune, even Elio in Call Me By Your Name, Laurie in Little Women, Wonka himself proved that Chalamet can do it all. However, A Complete Unknown left me feeling a bit fidgety, checking my watch every so often wondering if it would be over soon.
It didn’t wrap me up into the story of Bob Dylan. I felt more for the surrounding characters like Baez and Russo than I did for Bob Dylan….in fact, just like the movie title, I felt like I didn’t get a sense of who he is at all.
Besides…maybe someone with commitment issues? A guy who whips out the guitar after spending the night with you?
And that’s okay, but if that’s all it takes to be someone worth making a movie about…I’m worried.
Yes, I’m aware of Dylan’s impact on the music industry…but the movie stops where his career really takes off. You don’t get to see the success of the eponymous song, or Dylan become an icon for switching up genres.
No, you see his origin story. How he started speaking to a dying Woody Guthrie, how he transitions from folk music and disrupts the famous Newport Folk Festival.
You see him bouncing back and forth from Joan Baez and Sylvie Russo, never quite landing on one or the other.
And maybe it’s truly because I know next-to-nothing about Bob Dylan himself, but I didn’t leave the theater wondering more about him. While my father was pining for a second showing, I was left feeling satiated by one viewing.
I never need to see the movie again, it will not be a timeless classic in my house. I won’t look to Chalamet’s performance as Bob Dylan as the epitome of his career.
Despite a star-studded cast in Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Timothee Chalamet, and Monica Barbaro, don’t be surprised if James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown doesn’t get the awards season love that everyone was expecting.
A biopic is difficult in general, especially if the person is still alive. You have to capture the essence of an icon, and the expectations are already high.
And that’s okay, not every movie with this caliber of a cast needs to be an instant classic. There are still many people who will enjoy the film because we are all free thinkers at the end of the day…I’m just not one of them!
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
