Director: James Mangold
Writers: James Mangold, Jay Cocks, Elijah Wald
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Scoot McNairy
Synopsis: At the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, a young Bob Dylan shakes up his act on the folk music scene by going electric and siring rock as the voice of a generation – defining one of the most transformative moments in 20th century music.
It is 1961 and the Village in New York City is buzzing alive with the folk music revival led by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), carrying on the tradition of his very sick friend, folk legend Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). Coming from Minnesota is Robert Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), only with a backpack and guitar looking to break into the business. After making his pilgrimage to visit Guthrie, who is suffering from Huntington’s disease, Dylan meets Seeger who quickly introduces him to his family and the rest of the musicians, with manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) immediately realizing Dylan’s talents and signs him to a record deal.
In a few years, Dylan is no longer a complete unknown, and fame rages onward, sweeping him and his girlfriend, Sylvie (Elle Fanning). Dylan, still somewhat guarding his life as his fans swarm him and ask him to keep playing the political hits (“Blowin’ In The Wind”), wants to change all of that but feels chained by the base, demanding he stick to the traditional folk tradition like his counterpart, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Looking for that radical change, he considers going electric – the enemy of folk music traditionalists – and shaking up the status quo with what music can be without being shackled by expectations and rules.
For Chalamet, this is the best performance he’s given since Call Me By Your Name and is Oscar-worthy. This isn’t just playing a real-life musician and lip-syncing, this is Chalamet singing Dylan’s songs in his near-perfect Minnesotian dialect and becoming the Nobel Prize winner (as noted in the end credits). From the opening moment featuring him in the back of a car looking ahead to the Manhattan skyline to the final shot of Dylan riding his motorcycle, Chalamet converts himself into an American icon that blasts out of the screen with every note picked on his guitar and every stirring lyric sung. Tour-de-force is too common to describe the performance, but no other tern matches the height he’s accomplished as a folk-rock star. Chalamet doesn’t just play Dylan, he is Dylan.
Norton’s Seeger fulfills the real-life persona with the ultimate grace and softness of the real-life singer and activist; Fanning portrays the loneliness of being the lover of a superstar and enduring Dylan’s tinges of narcissism. Barbaro as Baez, the Barefoot Madonna (because of her natural beauty while performing without shoes on) is radiant while Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash comes in with a more nuanced portrayal as the Man In Black during his hard-drinking period. The scenes at the Newport Folk Festival with the live audience and at the recording studio make us feel as if we are there in person and part of music-making history with the cornerstone songs of this period being played. Being immersed in the Village during the ’60s is a surround sound experience that never feels out of place.
Director James Mangold, who knows a thing or two about making a musical biopic, effortlessly guides this consequential chapter in music history. He washes off that foul taste of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with influential music that swoons us back into the 1960s when the world was changing rapidly. So much of that aesthetic looks good on screen and gets us in with its hook from the beginning. It isn’t flashy, but A Complete Unknown doesn’t have to be when telling this section of Dylan’s life and fills the story with the amazing songs that changed the world.
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