Timothée Chalamet tries his best in A Complete Unknown, a Bob Dylan biopic that plays too safe
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There’s something a touch too uncrumpled about the ‘Dune’ star here, in a movie that lacks the required bite. Bob Dylan wants to be heard, not known. He used to claim that he’d run away from home as a child, that he’d joined the circus and lived an existence of adventurous toil. His origins, in truth, were as humdrum as can be. Director Todd Haynes, in his attempt at a Dylan biography, I’m Not There (2007), cast multiple actors in the role, heavy hitters like Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Richard Gere. But it was Cate Blanchett who came the closest to bottling his essence – that actor with the eternal twinkle in her eye, busy formulating a joke you’ll never be privy to.
James Mangold, with his new Dylan biopic, has come armed with ropes and tent pegs. He’s the kind of sturdy, reliable filmmaker who’s settled at the very foundations of Hollywood – the man behind Marvel’s Logan (2017), Ford v Ferrari (2019), and last year’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And he’s cast a real star of the moment, Timothée Chalamet, who’s faithfully dedicated himself to the rickety suspension bridge of Dylan’s voice, the cocked head, and wry smirk. A Complete Unknown takes a reverent stance to Dylan’s artistry, populated by technically accomplished musical performances (Chalamet’s voice isn’t perfect, but it’s undoubtedly impressive), and shot with a real sensitivity to the emotional landscape of each track.
It’s dutiful work. But dutiful doesn’t really cut it with Dylan. A Complete Unknown opens with the musician’s arrival in New York City in 1961, a puppyish enthusiast searching out his heroes, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). It ends with the moment he bid them adieu, creatively, by performing with electric instruments, thus stretching his hand out to the rock scene, at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival. People booed, allegedly. Others stood in silent awe. The scene, as scripted by Mangold and Jay Cocks, and based on Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric!, is pure Hollywood mythmaking. A fist fight breaks out as men scramble for the plug.
