I was going to try and come up with a witty introduction, like I usually do, but I can’t really think of anything. I know who Bob Dylan is, I’ve listened to his music, and I generally like it. Alongside that, I kept hearing glowing things about this movie from other people who saw it. So going into the theater, I figured I would like it. I’m happy to say that I did, so let’s talk about it.
A Complete Unknown is a biopic that follows Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet), his rise to fame, and his controversial transition from acoustic guitar to electric. That’s really all there is for plot. It’s based on the book Dylan Goes Electric, by Elijah Wald, which in turn is based on Dylan’s Newport appearance that sparked the controversy to begin with.
As for the movie itself, it’s a work of brilliance. Chalamet does a brilliant job of portraying Dylan throughout the film as an eccentric, introverted musician, who, as the movie states, was bursting at the seams with talent. I personally did not like Chalamet’s singing voice, but it grew on me as the movie went on.
As you would expect from a musician’s biopic, the music and sound design is brilliant. Bob Dylan’s songs are great as usual, but I want to draw special attention to the sound design. There’s a scene at the beginning where Dylan is walking through NYC, and you can hear everything around him almost as if you’re standing there, right next to him. Instead of generic stock sounds, the movie makes an effort to make you really hear the world how (I imagine) a musician would, taking in every sound all at once. It’s truly spectacular.
And that’s not even mentioning the moments where the movie slows down, and the sound fades. The silent moments between actors are truly brilliant, and certain scenes wield silence just as brilliantly as others wield sound to convey messages and spark emotion. And this movie has emotion in spades: Love, heartbreak, isolation, stress, tension, anger, fear, a whirlwind of feeling that picks you up and doesn’t put you down until after you step out of the theater.
However, as per usual, nothing is perfect, and unfortunately this movie is not. As I mentioned before, Timothee Chalamet’s singing voice is, in my opinion, not the best, and while it did grow on me, it took quite a while. Additionally, the pacing was very, very fast, and while this can be beneficial in some cases, in the case of a story like this, where you want to focus on the feelings of people, it was not a good thing in the slightest.
The nature of a biopic is to tell real, authentic stories, and grant greater understanding into the lives of people who we believe are incomprehensible and incomparable. For the most part, A Complete Unknown accomplishes that and does so brilliantly.
Overall, it’s a fantastic story, and I give it a solid 8/10.