DUBAI: There’s a scene roughly two-thirds of the way through “A Complete Unknown” when Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) sing “It Ain’t Me Babe” on stage at the Newport Folk Festival. It’s an extraordinary, electrifying performance — one that encapsulates the mesmerizing musical clarity and emotional power of this brilliant yet flawed biopic.
The opening quarter of James Mangold’s film is rich with such moments: a young, carefree Dylan singing “Song to Woody” for his hero Woody Guthrie; his first encounter with Baez at Gerde’s Folk City in 1961; the visible joy of Pete Seeger (played by Edward Norton) as Dylan performs “The Times They Are A-Changin’” at Newport in 1963; and the rapt attention of Seeger’s children as Dylan sings one morning in their family home. These scenes may play footloose and fancy-free with historical fact, but they brim with atmospheric splendor.
“A Complete Unknown” — co-written by Mangold and screenwriter Jay Cocks, and based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric!” — follows Dylan from his arrival in Greenwich Village in 1961 to his seismic performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The latter, replete with a braying crowd and hostile projectiles, acts as the film’s explosive finale, as Dylan rejects the straitjacket of traditional acoustic folk in favor of electric experimentation.
Monica Barbaro and Timothee Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown.’ (Supplied)‘A Complete Unknown’
Chalamet captivates as Dylan, capturing the singer-songwriter’s nonchalance and charisma, although the artist himself remains mostly a mystery. Sure, we see his ruffled hair, his quirky mannerisms, and his love of cigarettes, and Chalamet nails his distinctive, raspy, grittily raw voice, but Dylan the man is as doggedly elusive as ever. Outside of the musical set pieces, the songwriting, and a few intimate moments with Baez and his long-suffering girlfriend Sylvie (Elle Fanning, playing Dylan’s real-life partner Suze Rotolo), what remains is a moody, mumbling, and largely unpleasant artist grappling with the burden of celebrity.
That said, the movie’s faithful recreation of Greenwich Village and the New York folk scene of the early 1960s, its supporting performances — especially Norton’s Seeger and Barbaro’s Baez, and the addictive nature of the soundtrack not only make this a tribute to Dylan’s enduring influence, both as an artist and as a cultural icon, but a beautifully rendered period piece.
