The young Dylan arrives in New York and heads to the hospital where his idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), is being treated. His desire is to pay tribute. Folk music legend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) is visiting Guthrie when he arrives. After hearing him sing, Seeger devotes himself to helping the upstart musician, landing him gigs and introducing him to important people, including Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Dylan falls for Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning, playing a fictionalized Suze Rotolo) during this time, despite an ongoing attraction to Baez.
Attempting to cover Bob Dylan’s entire career in one movie would be futile. A Complete Unknown sticks to his early days, zooming in on a very specific idea. As Dylan’s popularity grows via protest songs, Seeger envisions him as the artist who can take folk music to the next level, introducing it to people who might otherwise ignore it. Dylan, however, doesn’t necessarily want that role. Running throughout the second half of the movie is a dispute over electric guitars. Dylan begins to lean toward them and toward a rock sound in general; Seeger feels they will alienate the traditional folk audience.
That’s a compelling angle, made more so by the contrasting yet complimentary performances from Chalamet and Norton. The latter portrays Seeger as a soft-spoken peacekeeper, always trying to minimize conflict. The former dives right into Dylan’s enigmatic nature. Both humor and tension arise from watching how these two men – who have different philosophies but a shared passion for music – frustrate each other, despite their mutual respect. A Complete Unknown becomes a savvy exploration of the eternal battle between tradition and innovation.
Where the picture comes up short is in the treatment of women. Despite being nicely portrayed by Barbaro, Joan Baez does not even remotely get her full due here. The romance of Dylan and Sylvie, meanwhile, is presented in a thin, conventional manner. Fanning has a couple powerful moments; unfortunately, the screenplay never allows her to make the character much more than a generic girlfriend.
A Complete Unknown would be a stronger picture overall if the women in Dylan’s life were more developed. The depiction of Bob Dylan stubbornly refusing to be pigeonholed by the folk world is sufficiently engaging to make the movie worth seeing, though. The man was, is, and always will be an iconoclast. Here we get insight into how iconoclasts change the world and why it’s important that they do.
out of four
A Complete Unknown is rated R for language. The running time is 2 hours and 21 minutes.
© 2024 Mike McGranaghan