By Julia Kelm
A Complete Unknown was released in theaters on December 25, 2024. The film was directed by James Mangold and follows Bob Dylan, aka Robert Allen Zimmerman, played by Timothée Chalamet. The plot is about Dylan’s early career in the 1960s and pursuing his very controversial and revolutionary decision that changed the course of folk and rock music in America forever.
I have been excited about this film ever since I heard about its production in February of 2023. I was even more excited when I saw the trailer, and realized Chalamet looked pretty convincing as Dylan.
I’ve been a fan of Dylan ever since my dad played his records for me as a kid, so I had relatively high expectations for the film. However, after seeing it on Friday, Jan. 7, I left the theater feeling mildly disappointed, but not surprised.
There were a few things I loved about this film. One aspect is that the film opens with Dylan going to find Woody Guthrie, played by Scoot McNairy, who he finds at a hospital in New York.
Just as some Bob Dylan lore, and to give some context for why this scene is so important, Guthrie is — in my opinion — the most influential American folk singer of all time. There is a clear chain of events for how his influence changed music forever.
Guthrie was Dylan’s inspiration and idol. Without him, Dylan would not have made the music he did. If Dylan hadn’t made his music, he presumably wouldn’t have given the Beatles marijuana — a moment that helped spark their evolution into creating more experimental and iconic albums, like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Are you following my insane string of logic here?
To put it more simply, Guthrie’s impact on music history is tremendous and underrated.
Seeing the moment Dylan met his idol and then singing “Song for Woody” did put quite a smile on my face. I was hoping this would be portrayed in the film beforehand and was not let down in that respect.
In addition, Chalamet’s depiction of Dylan was fantastic. He sang comparably well to Dylan, and really portrayed how much of a dick Dylan is, which was great to see.
I would not be mad in the slightest if Chalamet was nominated for an Oscar this year.
Now I can’t say I outright hated this film, because I think hate is honestly too strong of an emotion.
Ever since the success of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), we have seen an overload of mediocre biopics almost every single year since.
I wanted so badly for A Complete Unknown to do something different. It needed to stand out in some way so it didn’t follow the overplayed rise to fame story we’ve heard over and over again. Alas, this film drags just like the rest.
The film focuses way too much on Dylan’s scandalous relationship with Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro. Instead, the time could have been spent on what an artist does at the expense of everything and everyone else to create their art. Making for a more venomous twist on the traditional, and overdone musical biopic.
Dylan is one of the most notorious assholes in the music industry. To this day, you don’t know if you’re gonna get a good show or not. It just depends on whatever his mood is like.
Instead, he gets whittled down to his “voice of a generation” status without regard for the labyrinth of contradictions that snake through Bob Dylan as a person and his discography.
To conclude, I’m not against more biopics being made. I think they can be fun and memorable like Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman (2019) or Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (2022).
It looks like we’re at least heading in a more creative direction with the release of Michael Gracey’s A Better Man (2024) which also just hit theaters on Dec. 25th. I won’t lie, the CGI monkey has me intrigued.
Whatever the future of biopics holds in Hollywood, I’ll continue to stay tuned in.
Fingers crossed they don’t fuck up the Bruce Springsteen movie starring Jeremy Allen White.
Julia is a journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt. She loves film and is a regular on Letterboxd. To quote Robin Williams in her all-time favorite movie, Dead Poets Society, “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
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