A Complete Unknown (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world.

Directed by James Mangold. Stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning.

A Complete Unknown is a musical biopic of Bob Dylan, starring Timothee Chalamet. We follow his early days trying to make it big, as well as the fallout from his attempts to branch out from his folk music roots. I just wrote a review of the Christopher Reeve documentary, which kept a tight narrative focus throughout his life. This is the complete opposite -- the story tackles a much shorter period of time in Dylan's life but somehow lacks any throughline aside from maybe "Bob Dylan is an obnoxious person," which I suspect was not the story they were trying to tell. I do think that it's trying to get us to see him as this sort of a rebel figure, but it's not successful. It feels like a series of disconnected stories that don't add up to a picture of the artist that is interesting or compelling or feels worth telling. I will say Timothee Chalamet is really excellent in this. He fully disappears into the role. Totally forgot that I was watching a known actor. He just embodies the character, which is really impressive. And of course, we also have some really excellent music. I love how much time it spends listening to a lot of these great folk songs, and not just performed by Dylan, but we also get a lot from Baez and a lot from Seeger. (Edward Norton as Pete Seger is also really excellent. I haven't seen him do anything this good in a long time.) So the music is good, but I'm just not compelled by the story enough to be swayed by it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Complete Unknown (2024)

📊 Ranked #2523/4183 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to Blackmail Is My Life (held at #2100)

beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3144 → #3145)

beat The Man Who Knew Too Much (#2626 → #2627)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (held at #2362)

lost to All the Money in the World (held at #2494)

beat Dhamaal (#2560 → #2561)

beat Rushmore (#2526 → #2527)

lost to Stage Fright (held at #2510)

lost to The Savages (held at #2518)

lost to Hanna (held at #2522)

beat Videodrome (#2524 → #2525)

beat Only You (#2523 → #2524)