Just in time for major awards consideration (complete with (count them!) eight nominations for the 2025 Academy Awards) we have the much hyped James Mangold/Timothee Chalamet Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" covering Bob's seminal years 1961-65. Over the Xmas break I also read The Double Life Of Bob Dylan, Vol 1 1941-1966, A Restless Hungry Feeling which acted as a great fact checker refresher about all things Bob.
There were a couple of clues before watching "A Complete Unknown" , that we were not going to get any great insights into the mind, process or personality of Robert Allan Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan. One of the producers is none other than Dylan's manager Jeff Rosen who more than any other has carefully curated and protected Dylan and his legacy since the mid 80's. Secondly Dylan himself read the script, made some suggestions (more on that below) then gave support for the project when he had time on his hands over the Covid lockdown (his Never Ending Tour schedule grinding to a halt).
Part of the problem here is the sheer scale of events that occurred during the years,1961-65 and the required cast of supporting characters to support the narrative that have been explored at great length by Dylanologists and by Bob himself via his memoir Chronicles Vol One . There seems to be no Dave van Ronk , Ramblin Jack Elliott or Izzy Young for example whom Bob wrote extensively about in Chronicles while his relationship with Suze Rotolo (pictured below) is rendered down to a character named Sylvie who does little but cry and fret whenever in the presence of Bob (this character's re-naming apparently was a direct Dylan intervention to the film makers). The reality, according to Heylin and others is that Suze was Bob's muse as seen on full display via his first great album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan and not just iconic cover but much of the material - "Down the Highway" has Bob pining after Suze as she is away in Italy for 3 x months during 1962 .
"the ocean took my baby, my baby took my heart from me, she went away to Italy"
"Down the Highway, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
"He was very shy. He would ask Suze to tell me he'd like a cigarette. Suze was absolute sunshine. They would constantly whisper between themselves. She was his insulation between him & real life..But there was always a guitar .He was not shy about playing that. "
Steve Wilson (friend of folksinger Paul Clayton, a Dylan associate in Greenwich Village) to Clinton Heylin
Most significant is the casting of hot shot actor Timothee Chalamet (Willy Wonka, Dune ) in the lead role. No doubt with the youth association and potential wider audience in mind, (rather than opting for an unknown such as when Austen Butler was cast in Elvis) , Chalamet does an admirable job in playing the required folk picking style and offering a passable imitation of Bob's singing though without the full power of the Bob "drawl". The real problem is he plays Dylan as some kind of emotionless mute that is ,frankly impossible to identify with or like (one of the best lines in the movie is when the Joan Baez character calls him an "asshole") .Make no mistake, as researchers of note like Clinton Heylin have researched, Bob was in fact a "hustler" selling himself amongst the folk community (not just via Pete Seegar as the film makes out) and playing with anyone at any opportunity all the while "lifting" songs, styles and looks from anything or anyone he saw fit. All with a charisma, a dodgy back story and a gifted sense of humour in which people were gravitated towards; a true entertainer. He was no "one trick pony" as Chalamet portrays, merely writing then delivering the songs - he was a Jokerman!
"I found out for sure that his name was Robert Allan Zimmerman when I saw his draft card. In spite of myself , I was upset that he hadn't ever said anything about it"
Suze Rotolo as quoted in The Double Life Of Bob Dylan
"He never wanted anyone to know a anything about him"
A Hibbing High School classmate of Dylan as quoted in The Double Life Of Bob Dylan
The character that most resonates in A Complete Unknown is Joan Baez as played by newcomer Monica Barbaro. Whenever she appears both the tension and emotion heighten the proceedings , whether aided by her acting chops or the sharpness of the writing for her character. she serves as both the central character and anchor of the film. The tension between her character and Bob is palpable at times as Chamolet tries to portray a creative tension delivering one of the best lines in the movie:
"Your songs are like oil paintings on a dentist office wall "
Bob Dylan to Joan Baez
There are some great sequences where Dylan's new songs are presented from the Freewheelin era. It reminds us again how great and timeless much of his early material was. We get to hear the following in the first half alone, most from The Freewheelin album:
Blowin In The Wind
Times They Are A Changing
A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall
Don't Think Twice It's Alright
Masters of War
Girl From The North Country
There is an impression that the film could have ended at this point or else remain centred on the Bob/Joan dynamic. However when we reach 1965 for the last frentic third of the movie a sense of focus and dramatic tension is lost. There is a clumsy introduction of Dylan confidante Bob Neuwith while valuable screen time is consumed with the pointless backstory and presence of Al Kooper for the "Like A Rolling Stone "session . The resulting album , the classic "Highway 61 Revisited" is confined to being represented at the film's climax at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (there is a whole potential movie just with the making of this album alone).
The movie is over before Bob collides into the chaotic Blond on Blond era, meets Sara Loundes (later Sara Dylan his wife) or has the serious and significant motorcycle accident . One senses it would have been best to finish at the end of 1964, then look at a sequel to cover many of the following years in the sixties.
The New York Times has suggested the main aim of the movie may have been to promote Bob's back catalogue especially in light of him selling the entire output for half a billion dollars in 2020. With Bob now starting a TikTok account it seems the younger generation are going to be hearing more and more of him which is no bad thing but in this instance it has been at the expense of a satisfying cinematic experience. As a film summarizing this era there are stronger offerings not least Inside Llewyn Davies where the spectre of Bob seemed to resonate more and seemed more authentic. Despite featuring some great music, A Complete Unknown ultimately falls short as a truly satisfying cinematic experience. Still, I await with interest the upcoming Jeremy Allen White Springsteen biopic, hoping for a more compelling take on an iconic artist's journey
Footnote: With a huge sentiment of "go figure" it seems that Timothee Chamalet is the front runner to win Best Actor at this years Oscars.
For more on Bob, I wrote this to coincide with the "Springtime in New York" archive release a few years back.
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