A Complete Unknown, a biopic of Bob Dylan and his switch to electronic-based instrumentals in a time where a community of folk and acoustic sounds were diehard, demonstrates the changing of eras and how music is defined and shaped over time using Bob Dylan’s legendary 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival, the focal point of the film.
Bob Dylan himself needs no introduction. One of the most influential folk and electronic singer-songwriters ever, the only musician to recieve a Nobel prize in literature redefined what we see as music today in every single way. James Mangold wanted a way to portray the meaning of music and the way that it changes, and Bob Dylan’s debut of his electronic music in the biggest folk festival in the nation was the perfect event to base his new film on. Originally starting creation and filming in 2020, the movie was eventually finished in 2024, including real live performances by stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan himself, Edward Norton as legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro as singer and poet Joan Baez.
I, as a great Bob Dylan fan and fan of leftist folk, took great enjoyment in watching this film and seeing how things were in the eyes of Bob Dylan, an up-and-comer in the folk music scene inspired after his probably dramatized visits to Woody Guthrie in the hospital for Huntington’s disease and Pete Seeger, who happens to also be visiting, two highly revered artists in the revolutionary folk genre that perfectly starts with Dylan’s performance for Guthrie (upon Seegers encouragement): “Song to Woody”. The emotion and cinematography that director James Mangold captures in just the starting scene perfectly resembles the flow of the rest of the movie; emotional, passionate, and the effects of unconventionality to a scene of people who can’t fathom their boundaries being pushed.
The beginning of the movie puts the viewer in the feeling of the early ‘60s in a McCarthy New York, revolutionary folk and it’s artists are societally cast away and even taken action upon legally, shown by a scene where the aforementioned Pete Seeger is accused of anti-American conduct. These events in the world and Dylan’s admiration for both Seeger and Guthrie influences his music and the lyrics, writing contrarian songs and the entrance of the main phase of the film: Dylan’s relationships with Sylvie Russo (played by Elle Fanning, and a reimagination of the real life Suze Rotolo) and Joan Baez.
A great part of this film is spent focused on the differing relationships between Dylan and Baez and Russo. These relationships would carve at Dylan and the man he would soon become. Meeting Russo and starting a serious relationship with her, even eventually putting her on the covers of the album “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, things start to twist when Dylan takes upon his first encounter with Baez, who becomes equally as interested with Dylan as he is torn between one and the other when Russo leaves for a trip to Europe. All throughout this moral escapade, both women heavily impact Dylans music, as they both extremely encourage him to produce his own original music instead of continuing to produce covers of music already created. Both Baez and Russo see Dylan as a talented musician, who has the capability of creating exquisite music.
The rising tension of the movie begins when Bob Dylan, after a lengthy timeskip, has created quite the big ego. James Mangold perfectly portrays and continues the flow of the film and story even though the length of time he decided to skip out was significant. The folk community has given Dylan the fame that he could never have even dreamed of, but there was something missing. Dylan felt trapped, his frustrations grew longer and wider as he was given no creative freedom from the people around him. After fighting over the songs he wanted to play on tour, He ends the main phase of the movie and starts the climax by walking offstage on a duet concert with Joan Baez.
Experimenting in the studio, and meeting various new characters who would influence the music he wants to start creating more than folk acoustic music, upbeat electronic. Finishing his early work of what would later be “Like a Rolling Stone,” he prepares for the highly anticipated Newport Folk Festival of 1965. He would debut his electronic music to the disparaging crowd of folkheads, and finish the movie with his interactions towards Baez, who remarks to him that he finally got the artistic creativity that he had been craving from the start. The movie finishes the way it starts, with an emotional visit to Guthrie in the hospital before it closes out to Dylan riding out the city on his motorcycle.
The review? The acting is amazing. The environment makes you feel like you are really there, in front of these characters as they really sing in front of you in an era that was captured perfectly with both the buildings and clothing. A movie that has been in production for many years, everything was perfect, from the tiniest details to even the probable continuity of what had to be dramatized. This was arguably Timothée Chalamet’s greatest work as an actor, and James Mangold truly outdid himself with the way he carried out not only the story of Bob Dylan and his switch in music, but the original context and meaning of our music and how it changes with the time. Thanks for reading my review on the brilliant biopic, “A Complete Unknown!”
