A Complete Unknown
Portrait of the artist as a young man
Actors stepping into the shoes of legends is always tricky so mad props to Timotheé Chalamet for approaching his performance as a young Bob Dylan with elegance and rigor. He sings credibly with that raspy nasal twang, plays the guitar and the harmonica decently, and offers a portrayal of Bob Dylan that does not absolve him from what by all accounts is his aloofness (to put it kindly), yet empathizes with his need to be an uncompromising artist.
Biopics will always flatten complex history into easily digestible narratives, and this one is no different. However, it works because it lets the music sing. I was moved, almost surprised, to hear so much of Dylan’s early music throughout the film. We hear it as he is composing it, as he records it and as he performs it live. The music functions as a main character in the film, providing the explanation of whatever lives inside this man, which the character himself refuses to clarify to his friends, lovers, collaborators, and the audience. In this case, the title of the movie delivers on its promise. The man at its core actively vies to be as inscrutable as possible. The music sounds amazing and is beautifully produced. The songs provide emotional depth while allowing this enigmatic man to remain so. The script by Jay Cocks and director James Mangold is remarkable in the way it integrates the music to the story.
I had heard that the women in his life get short shrift in the film, but Elle Fanning (Sylvie Russo) and Monica Barbaro (singing very much like Joan Baez) acquit themselves with chops and poise. There have been rumblings about how Sylvie is rather a doormat and perhaps in real life Suze Rotolo, on whom the character is based, was less of it. But I could understand Sylvie’s pull towards him. She was in love. However, the script focuses more on how he becomes Bob Dylan, and how he matures as an artist. His flinty, distant demeanor protects him from the demands of people and fame. Chalamet, one of the most adorable stars to emerge in recent years, is not someone one would think could channel Bob Dylan, but it works. He is more interesting now that he is older. He can do distant, and self-involved, and he steps into Dylan’s shoes with clarity of purpose and care. His chiseled face is filled and his nose gets the daintiest curve, so he looks as cherubic as Dylan at the time. His makeup is subtle and extremely well done.
I like this movie better than Mangold’s Walk the Line, about Johnny Cash. Dylan is not typical biopic material, he is not an artist tormented by drug and self-esteem problems but a scarily self-confident young auteur. This is quite refreshing. This Dylan seems to sprout almost fully formed into the scene with little emotional baggage except his refusal to accommodate other people, whether they are his lovers, or his manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler, excellent), or even his idols. He creates his own myth, and his struggles are those of every budding performer who wants to be heard. He knows he’s good. The obstacle is that he may be too good; people may not be ready for the likes of him.
The cast is splendid: Edward Norton is a very moving Pete Seeger. In a quiet moment, in Norton’s wistful eyes you can read that Seeger knows that he is being dethroned by his young protege, that “the times, they are a-changing”, and there is admiration and a tad of bewilderment in being overwhelmed by this gigantic new talent. He is, as always, fantastic, and plays the banjo, too. Scoot McNairy is great as a physically diminished Woody Guthrie, and Boyd Holbrook does a magnetic Johnny Cash.
I fell for this movie. Listening to the songs in the context of the time when they were sung, songs that are as fresh, cutting and as resonant today as the day Dylan wrote them, made me bawl. I did not expect this film to be a weepie but it was for me. I wonder if it is the cumulative effect of the songs’ staying power, seeing the promise of an artist at the dawn of his career watching it unfurl knowing now what he achieved, or the fact that we are on the brink of terrible darkness and we don’t seem to have in us a similar spirit of revolt, his astounding wisdom, when we need it most.
