Reel Talk: A Complete Unknown review
4 stars
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Boyd Holbrook, Ed Norton, Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning
Rating: M
In cinemas: Now
We’ve had a ton of musical biopics in recent years, from Bohemian Rhapsody to Back In Black, and they often paint a flattering (albeit sometimes tragic) portrait of the artist.
Or perhaps some of the less cinematic aspects of the artist’s life are sanitised for a mainstream audience.
This is understandable, because such movies are only commercially viable if you secure a veritable jukebox of hit songs, and that’s only possible if you convince estates and record labels that you aren’t going to diminish the value of an artist’s back-catalogue with some inconvenient truths.
A Complete Unknown is an interesting addition to the genre, because, unlike BoRhap and Back In Black, its subject, Bob Dylan, is very much still alive.
But, despite that fact, director James Mangold has given us a depiction of Dylan, as played by Timothee Chalamet, which reveals the singer to be a bit of an a-hole.
Camera IconA Complete Unknown Unknown Credit: Unknown/Supplied
Based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, the film follows Dylan’s early career as a folk singer, his rise to prominence in that genre and then his decision to enrage the folk establishment by playing an electric guitar in his infamous set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Chalamet, BTW, sings all his own songs and is pretty damn great, too.
Mangold, of course, is no stranger to the biopic, having previously given us the 2005 box office hit Walk the Line, which saw Joaquin Phoenix play Johnny Cash.
Interestingly, some of the most memorable moments in A Complete Unknown also involve Cash, only this time he’s played by Narcos star Boyd Holbrook.
But the main attraction here is Chalamet’s Dylan, whose air of artistic superiority hangs heavy over those in his orbit, from friend and supporter Pete Seeger (played by a wonderfully folksy Ed Norton) to legendary folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro).
No one bears the brunt of Dylan’s hubris more than his long-suffering girlfriend, Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), a fictional character but no doubt based on the singer’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo.
Camera IconA Complete Unknown Unknown Credit: Unknown/Supplied
As for where the line between fact and fiction blurs in Mangold’s film, it’s worth noting the director also based the movie on many hours he spent talking with Dylan.
The timeline of some events are crunched for dramatic effect, and there are encounters and characters that are works of fiction, but, for the most part, A Complete Unknown stays close to the truth.
And what is that truth? Beyond examining the lonely path truth genius walks, well, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.
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