Illustration by Michael DiMilo
★★★★☆
No Direction Home: Film Review of A Complete Unknown
By Geoff Carter
Musical biopics never quite seem to hit the right note. While the trials and tribulations of musicians like Johnny Cash, Charlie Parker, and Freddie Mercury might be compelling stories in themselves, the film narratives based on their lives typically seem a little hollow and a little forced. The latest of this breed, the very well-acted and well-directed story of Bob Dylan’s early years A Complete Unknown, looks to have all the ingredients for a great movie: brilliant actors, a good screenplay, and excellent direction. But somehow, between the recipe and the final product, this movie, like Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis, Bird, I Walk the Line, and countless others, somehow seems lacking.
A Complete Unknown is the story of Dylan’s early career as a folk singer. It starts with Dylan’s (Timothee Chalamet’s) arrival to New York City in the back of a station wagon. He immediately seeks out his idol Woody Guthrie (Scott McNairy) who he has learned is in the hospital. He visits Woody and meets his friend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and impresses both men with a song he wrote. Seeger takes Bob under his wing and introduces him into the Village folk scene where he meets Sylvie (Elle Fanning). The two start a relationship and Dylan moves in with her.
After record executives and manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) hear Dylan, they immediately sign him to a contract, but insist he record only cover songs, resulting in poor sales. Before Sylvie leaves for Europe, she has an argument with Dylan about his aloofness and refusal to tell her anything about his past, which he argues is a construct anyway, saying everyone makes themselves up as they go along.
After Sylvie leaves, Dylan concentrates on socially conscious music which gets the attention of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). The two start a tempestuous affair and a artistic collaboration. Dylan records his second album and becomes a roaring success. Sylvie returns, but suspecting an affair between Bob and Joan, she leaves him.
Frustrated that he has been pigeonholed by the industry and his fans because of his success, Dylan seeks to break out. While on tour with Baez, he storms off-stage when she demands they play one of his hits. Sick of constraints on his creativity and looking for something new (as well as a way to assert his independence), Dylan starts to experiment with electric instrumentation, a controversial move in the folk movement. He puts together an electrified band to record his next album Highway 61 Revisited.
Worried that Dylan might bring his electric sound to his headline gig at the Newport Folk Festival, Pete Seeger implores his friend to stay acoustic. Determined to follow his own artistic conscience, Dylan plays the electric show. The crowd reacts by booing and throwing trash and bottles on the stage. Dylan relents for his friend Seeger by playing one acoustic song at the end.
While A Complete Unknown addresses compelling issues of the effects of fame and money on artistic vision, the story of the lonely artist trying to preserve his vision against the forces of capitalism and greed is hardly a new one. This was the same general narrative found in Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis, along with a number of other films. It’s a common theme because it’s a common problem for musicians, particularly the groundbreaking artists.
One of the shortcomings of the music business biopic is a sort of dramatic irony. The audience knows what is going to happen in the film before the on-screen characters do. Having experienced the lives of the artist as fans or bystanders, the audience therefore will come into the theater with a preconceived set of expectations. They know which songs will be hits even as Dylan is composing them. They know the dynamics in Baez and Dylan’s relationship. There can be no surprises—except known ones. When Al Kooper badgers his way into the recording of How Do You Feel? and blasts out those familiar opening organ chords, a wave of recognition flows over the audience.
The thrill for the audience then is not the actual telling of the story, although it could be argued that seeing a known story is an act of affirmation—or confirmation. A verification, if you will, not unlike a child wanting her parent to read the same bedtime story night after night. Dylan fans want to see the Dylan they know—or think they know, which brings up another of this genre’s shortcomings: the impersonation factor.
Actors playing real-life musicians, actors, or athletes must as part of their characterization, provide a convincing impersonation of that character or risk losing all credibility with the audience. Timothee Chalamet’s performance is altogether brilliant. He speaks and sings almost uncannily like the real Dylan. His sulky shoulder shrugs and almost sublime arrogance capture the man, yet, unlike performances where the audience can always subsume itself into an actor’s character, this audience is always aware that this Dylan is—well—a construct.
Yet, for all of the imperfections of the film biopic, A Complete Unknown is still an outstanding film. Besides Chalamet’s brilliant performance, Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez is spot on both as singer and personality. Boyd Holbrook’s short turn as Johnny Cash the singer is almost eerily dead on.Â
Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger is endearingly sincere and honest, the nicest of nice guys. Other actors might not have been able to portray the man’s undying optimism without becoming saccharine or hopelessly geeky, but Norton pulls it off.
James Mangold does a great job constructing the Village of the 1960s and documenting Dylan as he creates himself within it, but the story is thin—and known. Completely known. Had Mangold and co-writer Jay Cocks stepped outside the bounds of music history and explored Dylan’s interior life as an artist, this might well have been a different story.
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