A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
(director/writer: James Mangold; screenwriters: Jay Cocks, based on the book “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties” by Elijah Ward; cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael; editors: Andrew Buckland, Scott Morris; cast: Timothee Chalamet (Bob Dylan), Scoot McNairy (Woody Guthrie), Elle Fanning (Sylvia Russo), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger), Boyd Holbrook (Johnny Cash), Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez), Dan Fogler (Albert Grossman), Charlie Tahan (Al Kooper), Norbert Leo Butz (Alan Lomax); Runtime: 140; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Fred Berger, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen, Peter Jaysen, James Mangold, Timothee Chalamet, Alex Heineman; Searchlight Pictures; 2024)
“Without words, but by his gestures and songs the actor lets us know he has found his Dylan.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This straightforward Dylan biopic, on his early years, tells me mostly what I already know about the enigmatic singer but fails to tell me the things he’s kept hidden about himself (as it’s not possible to know the real Dylan since he’s so guarded).
It’s directed and written by James Mangold (“Ford V Ferrari”/”Logan”), and co-written by him and Jay Cocks, as it lets the music tell its story. It’s based on the 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties” by Elijah Ward. What sets this pic apart from the various other Dylan portrayals is the stellar way Timothee Chalamet captures Dylan in voice, song and action.
Mangold begins to chart in 1961 Dylan’s (Timothee Chalamet) trek from an unknown to stardom over a six year period (1961 to 1965), when the 19-year-old hitchhikes during the winter from Minnesota to NYC, with a backpack and a guitar, and his visit to his idol, folk legend Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), in the New Jersey hospital where he’s bedridden with Huntington’s disease and is nonverbal. Also visiting Woody is another folk legend, the political activist and environmental activist Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who becomes Dylan’s supporter thinking he’s one of them.
Dylan plays on his guitar a “Song to Woody.” A magical moment in the film, where Dylan emerges as Dylan. Without words, but by his gestures and songs the actor lets us know he has found his Dylan.
Elle Fanning plays the gentle, political-minded, freedom fighter Sylvie Russo, Dylan’s first girlfriend in New York City. She is called Sylvie Russo (but her real name was Suze Rotolo). She appeared with him walking arm-in-arm on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, his 1963 breakthrough album. At the time Dylan played in folk music clubs around Greenwich Village. He also showed himself to be a cad, who cheated on her and hooked up with the popular mainstream folk artist star, the angelic voiced Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), in what appears to be an opportunistic career move.
In 1963, at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan sings “The Times They Are a-Changin.”
In 1964, at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan and Baez, who are now involved musically and romantically, sing a duet of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.” Which is the film’s highlight scene. But they grow apart and soon separate, as Baez had enough of his contemptuous attitude to her and need to be the center of attention.
The film shows how Dylan recognizes the pop rock scene is about to explode and moves away from the purity of the folk scene and its acoustic guitars, as he goes electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 and gets booed by the angry crowd. The folk purists like Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz) and Seeger feel betrayed, as he takes his own path and kisses them off on his way to fame, fortune and deity status. He now records hit albums such as “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” that caught the pulse of the country.
I enjoyed this well-crafted, musically fulfilling and superbly acted biopic, even if it lives up to its title and we don’t get to know anything more about Dylan than we did before seeing it. But it’s made with affection for the great visionary rocker, who has many personal faults but can still write something as wonderful as “Blowing in the Wind.”
REVIEWED ON 12/25/2024 GRADE: B+
dennisschwartzreviews.com