A Complete Unknown (2024)

I can't say that I am the most knowledgeable Bob Dylan person in the world. I know of him and know a couple of songs but that was about it. A key reason for me wanting to see this film was that it was getting good reviews and has done well with BAFTA nominations so I wanted to give this the cinema going experience. This film follows Bob Dylan during the first half of the 1960’s as he gets started in his career and becomes the hitmaker we know he would become.  Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan, Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger, Ellie Fanning plays Sylvie Russo & Monica Barbaro plays Joan Baez with James Mangold trying to prove that the disaster that was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was a blip.

GOOD POINT 01 - CHALAMET WAS VERY GOOD AS BOB DYLAN

This film was really going to succeed or fail based on who they cast as Dylan and they cast the right person for the role. There is something that seems quite strange about Chalamet that means he pulls off roles like Bob Dylan and Paul Atreides with the same aura no matter how different the characters would be. He doesn't just look like Dylan but he seems to be talking and behaving like Dylan and this helps to create a believable version of the man himself. I also liked the fact that he actually sings all the songs himself instead of just miming, if you watch the end credits then when it says all the songs that were used it says Chalamet song most of the songs if not all of them.

GOOD POINT 02 - NORTON AND BARBARO ARE VERY GOOD SUPPORTING ACTS

To be fair there are quite a lot of good supporting characters but Norton and Barbaro stand out. It’s nice to see Norton in something (can't remember the last time I saw him) and he has earned a Supporting Actor nomination and its not hard to see why because the character who is a sort of father figure to Dylan but where Dylan’s music starts to get some people’s back up then Seeger changes his tune (pardon the pun) and there is a little bit of conflict. Then there is Barbaro who play Joan as a strong yet vulnerable person and its not hard to see why there was chemistry between Dylan and Baez.

GOOD POINT 03 - SONGS WERE VERY GOOD

If you are a fan of Bob Dylan then this will probably be an obvious good point but for someone like me who isn't then the songs are a big part of why I enjoyed it. There are portions where the song fills 5-10 minutes at a time and yet it doesn't ruin the flow of the film. The only downside with focusing on such a short period of time is that we only get a small percentage of his back catalogue. The film made the songs seem as good as I think that most people would say they are and it does make me want to get into Bob Dylan’s music.

GOOD POINT 04 - SCREENPLAY WAS VERY SHARP

The plot is going to come up as a bad point but the screenplay is very good as it allows Chalamet to have some good speeches with pretty much everybody and I think that the film does what it needs to. I think that there isn't a massive amount of plot but that isn't really much of a problem in this film because the songs do the heavy lifting and between the songs, you are won over by Chalamet’s performance.

GOOD POINT 05 - GREAT RUNNING TIME

At two hours and twenty minutes, I was worried that the film was going to outstay its welcome and the film was working to the point where I never felt like it was plodding or that the story was using padding to get to a longer running time. The performances probably do take a large chunk of the running time but the mix of performances and dialogue mean that the film has a perfect running time. Joker 2 should have watched this to see how to mix songs and story. 

BAD POINT 01 - FELT A LITTLE BIT UNDERWHELMED

As much as I love the good things about this movie, I felt a little disappointed with the film. I honestly cant put my finger on what it was but I liked this film rather than loved it and feel that I didn't quite get the proper feel of what Bob Dylan was like. A friend says that he is a bit of an enigma and so it was perhaps going to be difficult to present a full version of Bob Dylan in this film. Whilst I have praised the screenplay I do think that a little bit more effort could have been made to flesh the character out.

OVERALL

My overall feeling of this film is that there is plenty to like about this film and I understand why it's doing well at the awards but I feel like there was a slightly better film somewhere. This is a big step up for the director and I do recommend people going to see this film if only to see what Chalamet is like as Bob Dylan. It is towards the top of the pile of biopics based on music stars but I would honestly be lying if I said that I loved this film and I wanted to love this film as I went into the screening. As for the rest of the film, the songs are great, the pacing is great and it has a visual sheen that I think is hard to pull off and yet the film manages it.