Chalamet Delivers Career-Best Performance in “A Complete Unknown” – Review
- Colton Gomez
- Jan 2
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 17
Review
By Colton Gomez | 01/03/25 | 3:14 P.M. Mountain Time
Drama, Music| Rated R | 2 hr 20 min | "A Complete Unknown" Release Date: December 25, 2024
“A Complete Unknown” doesn’t completely know what type of story it wants to tell. It’s a biopic about Bob Dylan getting started in music, his relationships, his image, and rebellion. It’s also about Dylan’s industry influence in his pivot from acoustic folk music to early electric rock n’ roll. However, the film doesn’t quite commit to either of these. In trying to be both, it becomes neither. What we get here is a mostly good film that needed more confident direction and writing.
Director James Mangold delivers a startingly similar film to his 2005 biopic about Johnny Cash, “Walk the Line.” “A Complete Unknown” feels similar to the Cash biopic in style and structure. Mangold seems to be relying on proven methods and old tricks after “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” received lukewarm reviews. I hope he gets his confidence back for his next film.
Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) is discovered by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) when he tracks down Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) to meet him and play for him. Seeger introduces Dylan’s folk style and genius songwriting to the music industry of the 1960s. We see Dylan grow up from nineteen-years-old to around his mid-twenties. During which, we see his experience with relationships and the music industry, how he handles fame and his public image, and lots and lots of singing and songwriting. The film ends with Dylan’s controversial performance at the Newport Folk Festival, where he favored electric rock n’ roll over acoustic folk to mixed crowd reactions.
Chalamet is the best part of this film. He disappears into the character as he sings as Dylan (or better) and delivers a career-best performance. He assumes all of Dylan’s mannerisms, way of speech, and posture. He nails that low mumbling that can be hard to understand sometimes. At this point in his career, Chalamet seems very comfortable performing on camera and can make each scene his own. He holds the film on his shoulders as a true leading man. This is his finest work to date and I know we can expect even more from him. I believe he’ll get the Oscar nomination and that he has a good chance of winning. He was great in “Dune” but this movie is his.
Mangold films Chalamet as Dylan up close and personal. We’re behind the microphone with him and see the sweat on his face. We perform with him as he stares out at the crowd. You don’t always know how the crowd will react after the song, until they erupt in applause as if they were transfixed. The performances feel live and urgent. When Dylan ends a song, I want to join the audience in applauding him.
The loud and commanding sound design puts you directly into the space. But I don’t think Dylan was known for the “steady like a train, sharp like a razor” sound that permeates “Walk the Line”, which is the sound we get here. There are the quieter moments and certainly some songs are entirely acoustic. However, the film wants you to remember that powerful, loud, electric sound.
Elle Fanning played the part of Sylvie Russo, Dylan’s girlfriend, well but there really wasn’t much for her to do. The most interesting moment of her character is when Dylan swings by after some time apart to ask her to come with him to a gig. We can see how desperately she wants to love Dylan. We can see her try to be part of his world. We can see she knows how it ends but wants to try anyway. She aids Norton’s character in giving the film a much needed dose of humanity.
Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez also performed her role well but her character isn’t that interesting. She’s a part-time collaborator and part-time lover to Dylan. She gives character to the songs she sings with Dylan as she pours the emotions of their relationship into them. She does very well at holding her own in each scene and is a powerful performer.
Norton is a really good addition. This is perhaps the first role I’ve seen him in where he didn’t feel like himself. He does well to portray a family man trying to bring family values to an industry that can be volatile and punishing. Though, his jovial earnestness seemed to be a bit false at times, almost like he didn’t know which industry he was a part of. As Dylan’s discoverer, he plays the father figure who goes through the motions of sending a kid off to college, and takes all the angst and ungratefulness along the way.
Dylan is perhaps characterized best by his line, “I want to be a musician…who eats.” He’s up late writing songs, singing and playing the guitar, oblivious that he might be bothering anybody at the late hour. He doesn’t seem to be tuned in to culture or politics until you hear him sing about them in meaningful ways. He’s too focused on his image and ambitions to care about the people who brought him up. The women in his life are merely affairs. His love story is with music.
If you were confused by the ending, you’re not alone. This a big part of the reason why I rated this film three and a half stars. The film is about Dylan. It’s about his comeuppance and how he navigates his new life. Then about halfway or later into the film, it slowly becomes a discussion of electric vs acoustic. We didn’t end Dylan’s story. We didn’t get the full story of electric vs acoustic and how Dylan played a role in that.
The film ends on such a sour note that’s exacerbated by several epilogue text screens that explains what happened after that. It’s an insultingly cheap way to end the film. Here is this prodigy folk singer/songwriter. Here are his his struggles with relationships, ego, image, management, and direction. These are the people who supported him and brought him up. This is how he turned against them. Don’t worry, though it’s fine, they’re friends or something.
“A Complete Unknown” functions so much more like a biopic about a guy who burns the people that praised him up than about Bob Dylan’s pivotal integration of folk and rock. It ends at what should have been the midpoint, if that was the story. Show me how it changed, don’t end it with text cards and a mixed reaction crowd. It doesn’t commit to either, so it doesn’t really work either way.
See it for Chalamet.
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Review by Colton Gomez
Colton Gomez earned his BA in Film Studies from Weber State University. He owns and operates ColtonGomez.com. Here, he covers new releases in theaters and on streaming. For short versions of his reviews, check out his LetterBoxd
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