Reviews

A Complete Unknown (15) |Close-Up Film Review

Dir. James Mangold, US, 2024, 140 mins.

CastTimothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton

Review by Carlie Newman

In an amazing performance, Timothée Chalamet gives a very special portrayal of Bob Dylan. He performs Dylan songs himself, and even plays all the instruments perfectly, looking and sounding like the younger Dylan.

He is aided by Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. Barbaro sounds so similar to Baez that I really thought she was miming to the voice of the artist herself. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that Ed Norton playing Dylan‘s friend and mentor Pete Seeger also performs Seeger’s songs. Director James Mangold – who gave us the excellent Walk the Line – has done a fantastic job and given us a movie that captures not only a moment in time but one that became an historic musical memory.

The 19 year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York in 1961. Carrying his guitar he has come from Minnesota to visit Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is lying ill in hospital. Dylan is a fan of Guthrie who he has never met and has travelled to see him. In the hospital, he meets with Pete Seeger who, after hearing Dylan sing to Guthrie, becomes both his supporter and his mentor. 

Dylan joins the Folk singers who go from Club to Club and soon makes a name for himself. His two main relationships are shown in this film: Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), based on real life Suze Rotolo; and Joan Baez with whom he has a personal relationship as well as the other half of his famous duo who perform some of Dylan’s best-known songs. 

The singer/songwriter becomes famous, and it is a great shock when he turns to an electric guitar and devotes himself to rock ‘n’ roll. 

They are excellent renditions of many of Bob Dylan’s famous compositions. The movie gives us a lot of information about the development of the musical Dylan, but little about his personal thoughts and interior life. The music and songs however make this film a must see for any Bob Dylan fans and indeed, for anyone who is interested in folk music or in the development of the music of the era and even those who are only vaguely aware of the influence Dylan had firstly, as a folk singer and laterally as a singer of rock and roll songs.