A Complete Unknown (2024) ***

 

I generally shy away from biopics and historical movies. Filmmakers always take artistic license, and storytelling on screen is so much more compelling than dry, written history, that the movie version of the truth becomes gospel, and the actual events get left behind. Sometimes I can't help myself, though, especially when great music is involved.

Loosely based on the book Dylan Goes Electric!, “A Complete Unknown” begins in 1961, with a young Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) arriving in New York with nothing but a guitar case full of dreams. He seeks out the ailing Woody Guthrie and impresses him and Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) with his songwriting. Seeger introduces him to the local open-mic circuit, where Bob meets Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and begins to make a name for himself. The rest, as they say, is history. The film hits highlights of the next 4 years of Dylan's romantic and song-writing life, culminating in the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan, now the biggest star of the folk movement, enrages his fans by playing electric rock.

This is NOT Bob Dylan's story. Director James Mangold (“Girl, Interrupted” “Walk the Line”) takes massive artistic license, and the film even includes fictitious elements that were suggested by Dylan himself. According to Mangold, the movie is “not really a Bob Dylan biopic. It’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time in the early ’60s in New York … and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life [and] becomes a star."

Mangold can tell himself that all he wants, but he gave his “wanderer” the name of a famous public figure, and it's impossible for casual viewers to know what is fact and what is fantasy here. To the extent that people see the movie, and its many Oscar nominations ensure that many people will, this version of Dylan's story will become part of the legend. Viewers of the film will forever believe that Bob Dylan got his start by sitting down in a hospital room and impressing Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger with a song, when, in fact, that scene never happened.

Does it matter? Some would argue that the important thing is that the movie captures the essence of Dylan. Changing a bunch of historical facts makes the story better and allows us to relax into what is really a love letter to the music. And they definitely got the music right in this film. Chalamet and Barbaro sing and play guitar, and their numbers were recorded live, to great effect. You may get a little debate here and there about who America's greatest songwriter is, but I think the general consensus would land on Bob Dylan. “A Complete Unknown” really revels in his most iconic songs, giving us the chance to hear them as people did back in the '60s, for the first time.

I fully enjoyed the songs and great performances while watching the film. Chalamet really embodies Dylan, and Monica Barbaro is a beautiful actress with a great voice. Afterwards, though, reading about how the story plays fast and loose with historical facts, I felt fooled. To those who say that the legend matters more than the truth, I would say that we are currently living in a political reality that is the result of that way of thinking.

If you want to see a great, fictional movie about the songwriting process, full of good music and acting, check out one of John Carney's movies, like "Once," "Begin Again," or "Sing Street."  I say leave stories about real people to the biographers.

3 stars out of 5