Opening everywhere on Christmas Day:
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN(Dir. James Mangold, 2024)
I’ve long lived with the legend of how a baby-faced Bob Dylan with not much more than a guitar on his back, hitchhiked his way to New York to begin his revolutionary, controversial career so it was initially surreal to see this film so vividly bringing it all to life. It starts in early 1961 with a scruffy Timothée Chalamet as a 19-year old Dylan hitching a ride into New York City, where upon landing in Greenwich Village, he learns from folk singer Dave Von Ronk (Michael Chernus) that his idol, Woody Guthrie, is in Greystone Hospital in New Jersey.
Chalamet’s Dylan catches a cab to Greystone where he meets another notable folk icon, Pete Seeger, greatly portrayed with gentle gravitas by Edward Norton, at the bedside of an ailing, non verbal Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). After some introductions, and banter in which Guthrie gives Dylan a card that reads, ‘I AIN’T DEAD YET,’ Seeger asks Dylan to play a song, and the shy kid bursts into a riveting rendition of one of the singer/songwriter’s first original compositions that would grace his first album, “Song to Woody.”
It’s a beautiful, lovingly executed opening sequence that got me completely into the narrative’s conceit, but there’s a lot to unpack here because as any Dylan fan worth their salt would tell you, it didn’t really happen that way. It’s highly unlikely that Dylan encountered Van Ronk immediately after coming onto the scene, he definitely didn’t meet Seeger for the first time in Guthrie’s hospital room, and “Song to Woody” was written a bit after the budding artist’s first meeting with Guthrie (funnily enough, the card he gives to Dylan was true).
Thing is, though, none of these details matter in the big picture that is James Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, which was masterly written by the director and frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator (and a favorite former film critic of mine) Jay Cocks, who rework the facts from Elijah Wood’s excellent book, Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties into a grand fable, full of amazing music, and presenting its themes of sacred tradition versus progress like an epic thriller.
It’s a film for the ages that transcends the tropes of musical biopics so effectively that it sets a new standard for the form – I mean, the makers of the Springsteen Nebraska drama starring Jeremey Allen White should really take note.
For his part as the mysterious curly-haired troubadour, Chalamet deserves to win *ALL* the awards. The NY-born actor, who grew up a hip hop kid loving Kid Cudi, was originally supposed to take on the role back in 2019, but the project was delayed by the pandemic and the SAG strike, so he was given five years in which to learn to play guitar, blow the harmonica, and, most importantly, how to hone the most famously distinctive voice in all of pop culture.
And, damn it, if the kid didn’t completely nail it all. As a huge Dylan fan who has listened to every available note, seen the man 28 times live, and watched every single minute of film and video I could find of him over the years, I can confidently say Chalamet puts in a knockout performance. Talking about the movie on The View, Norton declared that what Chalamet pulls off is “a titanic act of immersion into a character. Nobody should play Bob Dylan, and he did it.” Amen.
The momentum of the movie comes from Dylan’s rise from the folk clubs, where he was revered for such iconic songs as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” to when he outraged the folk purists by plugging in and setting his lyrics to electrified blues, and rock and roll, which, he had long been a fan of – he was as much a disciple of Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley as he was Guthrie, Seeger, and Leadbelly. So it all comes down to whether or not the newly anointed acoustic protest king was going to go electric with a full band at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of 1965, essentially giving to the finger to the folk community.
Of course, we know what Dylan’s going to do, but the fun and thrill comes from seeing how it goes down, and the Newport finale is stunning, exciting, and yes, electric with Timmy in the zone as Zimmy (Dylan’s real name: Robert Zimmerman) rocking out to recreate the live debut of “Like a Rolling Stone” (and a few other classics) while the festival crowd, and the backstage onlookers (including Seeger who contemplates getting an axe to cut the cables) go nuts over the bard’s new direction, which as the song goes, doesn’t point homeward.
The heavy scenario is intertwined with his romances with Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, both also coming to a head that fateful day. Fanning’s Slyvie is based on Dylan’s early ‘60s girlfriend Suze Rotolo – the name was changed by Dylan himself (he’s an excutive producer on the film, and consulted on the screenplay), apparently still protective of their relationship – and their courtship is charming, with Fanning putting in heart-string pulling work as she’s alternately infatuated and confused by the gestating genius. Fanning really makes her mark, which is touching as she’s the one non-musical lead in this tune-filled tale.
But as Baez, Barbaro steals every scene she’s in from singing a gorgeous dark club version of “House of the Rising Sun” (like Chalamet, she spent years learning to sing, and play guitar) to her cutting post coital exchange with Dylan - “You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,” (a line so crucial that it made the trailer), and then to her ultimate estimation of her elusive sometime lover, which I won’t spoil. Barbaro's duets with Chalamet, even or especially on a song the real subjects never sang together, “Girl From the North Country,” are all wonderful - I’m looking forward to getting the soundtrack.
Norton is also awards-worthy as Dylan’s friend/mentor who is a bit taken aback by the singer’s fast rise into rock stardom. The quiet wisdom of Norton’s Seeger clashes in Dylan’s mind with another older brother type, Johnny Cash, as played by Boyd Holbrook, also bringing his own newly acquired musical chops to the table. It’s a considerably different interpretation of Cash than what Joaquin Phoenix brought to Mangold’s WALK THE LINE (2005), but it’s one that kills in this scenario as it’s this movie’s Man in Black that inspires Dylan to “track some mud on the carpet.”
In a recent promotional interview with MTV’s Josh Horowitz, Chalamet said ‘if we can be like a little humble asterisk on the legacy, of, or on the artist that is Bob Dylan, we did a good job.’ Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN is more than just a good job, it’s the best movie of 2024. It’s a wonderful, emotional experience that personally has served as a cure for post-election depression, and a reminder that movies and music, when mixed beautifully together, can take us to a place where all feels right in the world.
However, Chalamet is right, it’s a little humble asterisk on the large legend of Dylan, but it’s also a gateway for millions who don’t know the man to really give him a listen. And with the looming threat of darkness coming down, this is when people could most benefit from seeing, and hearing someone stand their ground, follow their muse, and be unafraid of the reaction. Despite all the imminent signs of doom, those kind of ideals AIN’T DEAD YET.
More later...
