Released on Christmas, “A Complete Unknown” was a gift to all, starring Timmothee Chalomet as Bob Dylan and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. A Complete Unknown is a biopic on American folk musician Bob Dylan.
The film starts with little build up and shoots right into a young Bob Dylan being on the road with no idea that his musical career is about to quickly start and take off. I found it interesting that there was no information on Bob’s family during the movie. I expected there to be at least one scene that told us the story of his childhood and how he grew up, but that is also something I really liked about this movie: there wasn’t any unnecessary build up. As I am writing this I am becoming more and more fond of the fact that there were no scenes involving his childhood. There was nothing abnormal or unique about how he was brought up, other than him being inclined to music and rock stars. I strongly dislike when movies take forever to get started, so “A Complete Unknown” was a breath of fresh air. I found the formatting of this film quite interesting and different. Typically I see movies about people taking place in their whole life span, but this film was strictly centered around his prime era, 1960-1965. I will admit the film was quite long, 2 hours and 30 minutes to be exact, but it is packed with storylines and musical events and suits Bob Dylan’s life. I did lose a little bit of attention towards the last 30 minutes but that was to be expected.
The feature I found most amazing and unique about “A Complete Unknown” is that actor Timothee Chalomet actually sang and learned to play Bob Dylan’s songs for the film. The most surprising part is that not only does Chalamet look just like Dylan, but he also sounds quite similar. As the film progresses you can see the amount of effort put in by the actors to make the movie as realistic as possible.
The story follows Dylan’s developing career that took off quickly. Dylan lives a life young and away from home, and the story follows his romances with two different girls. Dylan alternates between them while they are completely unbeknownst to his unfaithful antics. I found this romance upsetting. I felt for both of the girls, but also, it’s Bob Dylan. While I wasn’t expecting one of the main storylines to be focused around romance, I actually really loved it more than I thought I would. Both relationships were written so well and really thought out deeply. It is a dynamic I haven’t seen portrayed in film often. In the film there’s an analogy used by one of the girls who says that Dylan is like one of those people at the circus who spins plates on sticks, and she feels like she’s a plate there for him to play with and evidently break. I found this so insightful and honestly beautiful, though unfair and harsh.
I would have to say that “A Complete Unknown” was one of the best movies I watched that came out this year because of its unique storytelling and introspective plot. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who is into folk music and complicated romance. I would also highly recommend this movie if you don’t yet listen to folk music or don’t think you could get into it. This movie provides a lot of great music that I don’t hear many young people listening to, and it is a nice contrast to most modern day music.
