Nothing special from a storytelling standpoint, but its tick-the-boxes sincerity gives this Bob Dylan biopic the necessary foundation for a trio of exceptional Oscar-nominated performances from Timothee Chalamet, Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton. 

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Out of nowhere, director James Mangold and actress Monica Barbaro scored unlikely Oscar nods as A Complete Unknown threatened to upset some of the frontrunners like Anora, Conclave and The Brutalist. 

However, the person with the best chance to have nabbed an Oscar for the film would have been Timothee Chalamet, who is outstanding as Bob Dylan. 

Dylan is, of course, a legendary figure, still the only singer-songwriter to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.  A half-mumbling Chalamet, with guitar and harmonica in tow, and the strut of a confident if troubled young man on the cusp of greatness, embodies Dylan’s ingenuity with lyrics and music. 

I was similarly mesmerised by Barbaro’s Joan Baez (her rendition of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ might just be my favourite scene in the film) and Edward Norton’s banjo-playing Pete Seeger. 

“I am now famous. Famous by the rules of public famiousity.”

I can’t sing to save my life but I love playing the guitar, so anything with guitars in it automatically excites me.  Very much a straightforward biopic, A Complete Unknown benefits from Mangold’s assured execution, focusing on the tangibility of performance rather than anything deeply psychological. 

While some might lament the film’s textbook approach to the genre, its tick-the-boxes sincerity should appeal to a much wider audience than, say, Pablo Larrain’s more obtuse and contrived Maria, which stars Angelina Jolie as the famous soprano singer Maria Callas, who made waves in a similar era to Dylan’s. 

As a geopolitical history buff, I enjoyed the numerous references to certain key events of the ‘60s, particularly the harrowing 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which is imagined as overcome by Dylan and Baez in a one-night stand that promises new romantic beginnings.  Dylan, however, sucks as a lover.

Chalamet’s performances on stage, notably the recreated scenes of the Newport Folk Festival where Dylan sparked controversy by performing with a rock band to a largely disgruntled audience, remain, shall we say, electrifying.  

Grade: B+

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