A Complete Unknown -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11563598/reference/
Biopic of Bob Dylan with Timothy Whatshisname.
.. dunno. Didn't like it. Was i even expecting to like it?
The story covers the initial period of time between Dylan's arrival in NYC and his first foray into the folk scene, to the Newport Concert "disaster".
Dylan arrives in town to meet a dying Woodie Guthrie and through a friend gets invited into the folk scene; in these years even famous people would perform in a normal club, sometimes with no stage, no security, just a singer and a guitar - getting into their circle of friends was not difficult, you'd show up and say hello.
Dylan starts singing and he's got some nice tunes, poetic n' shit. He starts to do well and is eventually picked up by, i believe, Columbia.
He also meets Joan Baez (who by the way is still alive and singing) and .. well, not much of importance happens. I'll be honest, there really is not much need to spend that much runtime on the girlfriend who was jealous of him singing with Baez. It was something that was not in the news, it was not a scandal, it's really not of great importance.
And unfortunately the vast majority of the film is about a lot of nothing. Yeah sure they show Chalamet singing, but, you know, i don't particularly care for Chalamet singing. I mean, he's not BAD, but he's no Dylan. And .. i know those songs already.
See, like everyone, i too went through a Dylan phase. Dylan is a talented, musical poet, and the aggressively negative way he phrases his lyrics, that is an extraordinary and unique style; it's the same for Johnny Cash - it's about that deadpan voice, and the absurd lyrics. I think the perfect comparison would be if you did a biopic of someone like Elvis, Pavarotti or Sinatra - you *really* need those unique voices, if you haven't got them, you can't replicate the same results.
Eventually the film progresses to where Dylan starts playing electric rock & roll, at the Newport FOLK Festival, and everyone gets pissed off at what essentially is a class traitor.
And this is also something that is suspiciously lacking from this film; see ... Robert Zimmerman, is not really a nice person. He's a Charmin, Unique, Naturally Talented artist. And this film tries mighty hard to dodge this issue and portrays Dylan as someone who just got bored with the studio he was working with, and wanted to go further. They even lie blatantly and imply that Suze Rotolo, his gf, was the one that pushed him to move further, when instead it was purely a business decision - folk was coming to an end, and Dylan was making too much money to stay on a sinking ship. Dylan didn't do squat for rock, he just realized that he could make moar mony (and frankly, his rock albums leave a lot to be desired).
My impressions is that A Complete Unknown doesn't have a story to tell - it just wants to give you a simplified version of what you'd read on Wikipedia, but in visual format. It doesn't try to comment on the artist, or the music, or even the scene, it just says "well this show happened, let's show it how it happened" but in now way attempts to make a judgement or comment on what is the meaning, the importance behind it.
I wouldn't recommend it. If you like Dylan, or you haven't had your "Dylan period" yet, just get yourself Another Side Of Bob Dylan, and listen to that instead. Maybe throw in a couple of singles. Unfortunately, the reality is that Dylan was a very much overrated artist - sure, unique, and did do some good work at a time, but cannot compare to a real life giant like Freddie Mercury.
my vote:
6/10 ? but .. not sure who the target audience is.
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