by Victoria Alexander
The music is terrific, Chalamet is fantastic but there is no insight into Bob Dylan. I know nothing about Bob Dylan. It’s like reading Dylan’s Wikipedia page. Why did he hate being idolized? What happened with Baez?
If only dreams came true like Lana Turner being discovered while drinking a milkshake at Schwab's Drugstore, Susan Sarandon was discovered by an agent while accompanying her husband to an audition, and Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) becoming famous by wandering into Woody Guthrie’s (Scoot McNairy) hospital room and singing for him and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton).
According to A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, Seeger was a blind saint in his devotion to Dylan but never got a song from him or a public “thank you.”
Seeger was upset and felt betrayed when Dylan went “electric” at the Newport Folk Festival but it did not end their friendship.
Yes, it is the songwriting that still has not been surpassed, but what was Dylan like? How did he accomplish so much, so quickly in the notorious music business by being unfriendly, unapproachable, sullen and mysterious?
I saw Dylan perform perhaps ten years ago at a private concert for a company able to afford having Bob Dylan perform with a band for an hour. He was astonishing. Being a small, private Las Vegas concert with everyone standing, I was able to get really close.
Seeger takes Dylan to his home to live and introduces him to every influential person in his music world. Norton overdoes the “proud, beaming father-figure.” I was ready for Norton’s Seeger to kneel in front of Dylan and ask that they pray together.
After the perfunctory beginnings of the innocent folk singer, Chalamet’s Dylan transforms into the self-possessed enigma with the dark, curly hair, black clothes and trademark sunglasses.
For reasons never explained, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN shows Dylan hating his fans and uncommunicative. The film gives no insight into the suffering that underlines so many of his songs, such as “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”.
Everyone surrounding Dylan loves him. Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), already famous when she first met Dylan, looks at him with abandoned love and idolatry when they sing together, his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) is the neglected girlfriend who keeps going back to him even though she feels his heart belongs to Baez.
Fanning’s Sylvie is a crying doormat without any good reason for loving Dylan. She is shapeless and formless. Dylan’s real first girlfriend entered music history by being on the cover of Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Why did Dylan brutally end his affair with Baez?
"Dylan broke my heart," Baez said in the documentary I Am A Noise. “I was just stoned on that talent.”
Dylan was no romantic. In A COMPLETE UNKNOWN he loves no one.
Directed by James Mangold and co-written with Jay Cocks, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN is the perfect title, because Dylan is still a complete unknown. This is the problem when you make a movie about a living artist and you need his cooperation and his catalog of songs. Imagine if a movie about Dylan had none of his songs?
Better go along with the legend approved by the artist.
Chalamet is fantastic with what he was given. He tried to give his performance a deeper subtext. Chalamet intuitively knew something bad haunted Dylan. His skill is giving Dylan a tormented soul which somehow lessens his ruthless, self-absorbed persona.
Yet, Bob Dylan is still a mystery.
I loved Chalamet’s sanitized portrayal. The dedication Chalamet put into this performance shows his absolute commitment in his film work. He is already in Hollywood’s elite galaxy, but he needs to leave boyhood roles behind, finds a decent hairdo and drops the bizarre dress-up.
Who can relate to a man who wears a short yellow jacket and yellow pants to an event? Who understands a man who wears a red backless shirt in public?
Bob Dylan has spent his public life as an enigma, so why would he allow a film to present anything but the cleansed version of history?
The ALL is Mind; The Universe is Mental.” Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Critic.
For a complete list of Victoria Alexander's movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes go to:
Contributing to: FilmsInReview: http://www.filmsinreview.com
Member of Las Vegas Film Critics Society
Personal email: victoria.alexander.lv@gmail.com
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