There are few more divisive figures in music than Bob Dylan. To some, he is a magical mysterious minstrel, a poetic voice of a generation. To others, he is a nasal whine in sunglasses. Made with Dylan’s blessing, Walk the Line’s James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown (a lyric from Like A Rolling Stone) lands closer to the former, serving up an entertaining if rarely gripping portrait of the artist as a young hipster.
It spans from Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) 1961 arrival in New York to his appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he shocked the beardy-weirdies by playing with – Gasp! Horror! – electric instruments. In between, we get Dylan drawn into the folk fold by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), his seemingly effortless rise to stardom, his relationships with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning, playing a fictionalised version of Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo) and fellow singer-songwriter Joan Baez (Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro), and a heavy-handed depiction of the singer dealing with being pigeonholed as an acoustic troubadour.
To his credit, Mangold eschews the cliches of the typical musical biopic – no-one shouts ‘Hey, tambourine man!’ to Dylan in the street – but he never imbues the story with compelling conflicts or raw intensity. It may stick close to the facts, but the storytelling is one note – the times might be a-changin’ but the tone rarely does. He also never really finds a way to articulate Dylan’s interior life – there’s lots of Dylan smoking and strumming some of his famous tunes into existence, but we get little insight into the nature of his creativity.
Chalamet inhabits Dylan without feeling like a Stars In Your Eyes contestant
Still, there’s lots to enjoy in A Complete Unknown. Mangold manages to conjure up the grit of ’60s New York, while still delivering elegant, carefully crafted filmmaking. This is no more prevalent than in the musical numbers. In performance mode, Mangold captures the joy of musicians making music together and it is infectious; a jamming session on a radio show between Dylan, Seeger and bluesman Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield) is a total delight.
Mangold is also well served by his cast. Norton is a winning presence as Seeger, Dan Fogler adds fun as Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman, and Fanning has effective moments as Sylvie –her face crumbling as she watches Dylan and Baez duet, fully cognisant of the depth of their bond, is quietly moving.
But the film thrives on two performances: Barbaro is terrific as Baez, hypnotic on stage and fiercely charismatic off. And Chalamet inhabits Dylan without ever feeling like a Stars In Your Eyes contestant. From the voice to the charm to the earthiness to the self-centredness (‘You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,’ Baez tells him), Chalamet nails it all. It’s a shame Mangold’s safe flick doesn’t ask just that little bit more of him.
In US theaters Dec 25, and UK and Ireland cinemas Jan 17.