Monica Barbaro

A Complete Unknown is set in the early 1960’s and focuses on the meteoric rise of the multi-award winning Bob Dylan from his arrival in New York City as a 19 year old with just a guitar and a new name, to his landing at the hospital bedside of his hero, Woody Guthrie, to a chance introduction to stars Pete Seeger and Joan Baez and finally making a controversial choice to “go electric” that reverberated throughout the Monterey Folk Festival and beyond.

For many music lovers, both in the 60s and after, Bob Dylan provided one of the most important soundtracks to our lives. Count me among that group. It is gratifying, then, that director James Mangold relies primarily on Dylan’s songs to define him and his political environment in his biographical film, A Complete Unknown. With this as a strong, definitive, and informative framework, Mangold avoids formulaic pitfalls of the tired musical biopics while also capturing Dylan’s real appeal—atypical lyrics, his singular vocal delivery, and his, at best, brooding, conflicted presence in the spotlight. The impressive, actual singing of Timothée Chalamet as Dylan all but erases the differences between his and Dylan’s tentative, self-conscious façade.

A Complete Unknown is an appropriate title for director James Mangold’s biopic of Bob Dylan. The phrase comes from Dylan’s song Like a Rolling Stone, and the film offers a snapshot into the start of the legendary singer-songwriter’s career. Yet Dylan remains an enigma throughout the film, the story skipping along the surface instead of plumbing the depths. To be fair, Dylan is a challenging subject, known for his career of sixty-plus years, let alone his famously prickly personality. Those who lived through the early 1960s and appreciate folk and early pop will revel in the sound and atmosphere of A Complete Unknown. As for those who want to understand more about Dylan or what makes him tick … well, the answer’s in the title.