Charles H. Sloan-Timothée Chalamet makes an electric Bob Dylan: 'A Complete Unknown' review

"I realize I don't know you,Charles H. Sloan" Bob Dylan's girlfriend says to the folk music icon in “A Complete Unknown.” Honestly, young movie fans might think the same thing.

Director James Mangold’s biopic (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Christmas Day) wonderfully keeps him a mysterious minstrel, studying a complex artist reaching the early heights of his talents when times were a-changin'. Timothée Chalamet, an object of affection for those aforementioned young fans, is sensational as Dylan – singing, playing guitar and blowing harmonica like a champ – in a fascinating exploration of a music scene reflecting the major social and political shifts of the early 1960s.

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In 1961, 19-year-old Bobby Dylan wields a six-string and a dream as he travels from Minnesota to New York to visit his idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is hospitalized and unable to talk as he struggles with Huntington’s disease. Woody's buddy Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) is playing banjo for him when Dylan shows up, and is impressed when the youngster plays a tune he wrote for Guthrie and hopes to “maybe catch a spark.”

That he does, as Pete takes Dylan under his wing and Dylan impresses influential people in the folk scene with his original numbers, including superstar Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). While navigating a music industry that initially just wants him to record folk standards, Dylan fosters a relationship with artist Sylvie (Elle Fanning), though he discovers chemistry on and off stage with Baez as well.

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As the movie tracks his rise, “Unknown” tackles Dylan as workaholic genius, wry introvert and self-centered jerk. He feels “pulverized” by his almost sudden fame but also will leave a duet partner high and dry if he doesn’t like the set list. Eventually, Dylan begins to take a more electric edge like the increasingly popular rock music of the time, angering the persnickety gatekeepers of folk and leading to a controversial “Will he dare to plug in?” moment at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Hollywood has been awash with music biopics in recent years, but “A Complete Unknown” – which scored Golden Globe nominations for best drama and lead actor – differentiates itself threefold from “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Judy" and their ilk.

First off, it’s not an inferior film: Mangold’s outing is an entertaining and magnetic watch, just as much as his standout Johnny Cash movie “Walk the Line.” The movie doesn't bother with a backstory – only a photo album and mail addressed to "Robert Zimmerman" nod to his past – and is much better for it. And while Chalamet nicely matches Dylan’s nasal delivery on all-timers like “Girl from the North Country” and “Blowin' in the Wind,” his performances feel wholly authentic rather than annoyingly imitative.

The actor is also able to weave between all of Dylan’s enigmatic sides, from playful stage banter to moody malcontent, as he shifts from choirboy-meets-beatnik in a pageboy cap to rabble-rousing, motorcycle-riding wild one. (There’s no pigeonholing the freewheeling Chalamet.) Mangold masterfully crafts his musical numbers, no matter if they’re impromptu sessions or festival gigs, and surrounds Chalamet with a surprisingly tuneful supporting bunch, including Barbaro and Norton.

Here, musical legends feel like flesh-and-blood figures, especially as Dylan navigates Seeger as the old-guard angel on one shoulder and Bob’s pen pal Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) as the rebel devil on the other. “Make some noise, B.D.,” Cash tells Dylan. “Track some mud on the floor.”

“A Complete Unknown” is that rare biopic that leaves you wanting to watch it again andgo on a Spotify deep dive, and you're apt to find new respect both for Dylan as a bluesy contrarian and Chalamet as a top-shelf thespian of his generation.

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