A Complete Unknown

Since I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s – yup, I’m that old 😉 – I heard a lot of Bob Dylan’s music as a kid. Add to that the fact that he comes from the state of Minnesota, just like me, and you can understand why I wanted to see the movie, A Complete Unknown. The movie follows the start of Dylan’s musical career in the 60’s in New York city. Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, did a magnificent job, learning to play the guitar and harmonica so that he could accompany himself as well as sing. And it wasn’t just 1 or 2 songs that Chalamet performed, but 40 songs throughout the film!

While some biographic films tend to gloss over the unpleasant character traits of their subject, that was not the case with this film. Dylan’s sensitive songwriting persona alternates with the egocentric, unkind side of his persona. I guess geniuses are always complicated and multi-faceted…?

The film follows only 4-5 years of Dylan’s career and while it was an interesting, formative period, it was a bit short on real drama to make the story line truly interesting. Compared to recent films about musicians Freddie Mercury and Elton John, A Complete Unknown was pretty slow and sedate. It was a good film which I’m glad I saw, but it was not an interesting enough story for me to  give it top marks.