“A Complete Unknown” came blowin’ in the wind
The movie “A Complete Unknown” tells the story of a young Bob Dylan and how he got his start in folk music. The cast includes names like Timothee Chalamet playing the leading role of Bob Dylan and Edward Norton playing musician Pete Seeger, who worked together to realize Dylan’s life. The cinematography overall was beautiful and showed the vision director James Mangold was attempting to capture. The story has themes of self doubt, not knowing what one wants in their life and that sometimes breaking the rules can create great outcomes. Additionally, going into the film, I did not really know who Bob Dylan was, and I was pleasantly surprised by the movie as a whole.
Although this was Chalamet’s first time acting in a biopic, I got the impression that he put a lot of practice into becoming Bob Dylan, with the addition of Chalamet using his own vocals in the film. The two leading ladies, Sylvie Russo, played by Elle Fanning and Jean Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, both gave outstanding performances as well. Whether it was their on-screen chemistry with Chalamet or Barbaro’s incredible vocals throughout the film, all was amazing. On the same note, Norton brings Pete Seeger to life with the astounding emotion he brings to every scene.
The story was a refreshing point of view, with the addition of Scoot McNairy playing singer and composer Woody Guthrie. Compared to other folk musicians he showed faith in Bob Dylan with the switch in music styles. Between scenes, Dylan was shown in Guthrie’s hospital room playing to him, even though I thought the scenes were slower than others, they had a new take on the slower parts of life with them having special purpose. Having the ending clips and beginning clips include Guthrie and Dylan sharing a moment was special to see, as well as how Guthrie believed when no one else would, which was the start of Bob Dyan.
A quote that stood out to me was when Sylvie was talking to Dylan saying, “Don’t ask for the moon, when you have the stars.” This then made Dylan realize that he has not been setting his priorities straight and needs to figure out where he wants to go in life. Throughout the movie, it is shown that he was lost and did not know who he truly was and, upon hearing what Sylvie said, he realized that without knowing what he truly wanted, the bigger picture of his life would not completely form.
Of all the biopics I have seen, “A Complete Unknown” is definitely in my top three. No matter what someone thinks about some of the actors, it should not sway their opinion about whether this is or is not a fantastic film. Even though I see people of my generation not appreciating the movie because Bob Dylan was not as large a part of our time, I think that everyone should give it a chance.
