A Complete Unknown (2024) - 7/10

I didn’t think I’d like this. I didn’t do much to avoid it on release, as much as lazily ignore it, but on a long haul flight, it sort of called to me and I’m glad it did. I’ve often said Dylan isn’t for me. I don’t know much about the guy and this film won’t really shed much light, but that seems to be the point. He’s aloof and Timothée Chalamet it turns out is very good at aloof. Here he plays Bob with a casual eaze. Turning up in New York with a guitar on his back and a head full of songs, he’s the epitome of the romantic portrayal of a loner artiste. Through a cast of notable names, Joan Baez (Monica Barbard), Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), we track the slow to start but increasingly fast paced rise of Dylan as he shuns the standards for protest songs, before upsetting the putirans. Crikey, the songs! As good as the sets, the wardrobe, the casting are, it’s the songs that drive this, perhaps predictably and it’s here that I have to confess that although I’m unlikely to ever fall in love and gush about Dylan, his hits (if it’s not sacrilege to call them that) are rather amazing. Each one as it drops in the two and a half hour runtime, gives the film a boost that jettisons it with a subtle rush of dizzying positivity. Dylan may come across as a dark moody soul and his lyrics often echo that, but this is a celebration. It’s not a straight up puff piece though. Sure it’s shines a bright light on the music, but it pulls no punches about Bob being difficult. Whilst the songs are the gear changes, it’s the relationships that give this its energy. The on off love story with Sylvie, the attraction and frustration with Baez, the fatherly protection from Seeger. Some of the details play the artistic license card, I know this upsets some (ironically), but it’s not that important. This film is all tone, it’s brilliant and the finale is electric.

7/10