“If you’re looking for a best-of-Dylan tribute act”, James Mangold’s new biopic “delivers in spades”, said John Nugent in Empire. Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of the iconic singer-songwriter is “unimpeachable”, and the film unfolds like an “expertly staged jukebox musical – ‘Mamma Mia!’ for dads, if you like”.
But the movie “plays it safe”. Right from the start it feels obvious the action is leading to the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. For those with even a cursory understanding of Dylan’s life, there will be “few surprises here”, and, frustratingly, the film “struggles to find something fresh to say”. Those expecting a “revelatory portrait” of one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century might be left feeling “a smidge disappointed”.
‘Shop-worn tropes’
Mangold has delivered a “likeable but disappointingly conventional” biopic, that’s dampened by a “safe, unimaginative script”, said Caryn James on the BBC. The director behind “Walk the Line” (a film chronicling the life of Johnny Cash) was “too smart” to attempt an explanation of Dylan’s mysterious persona; instead we see him primarily through other people’s eyes. This “spares us any cringey scenes depicting the creative process”, but it also gives the film a “perfunctory” feel as viewers are taken through familiar scenes from Dylan’s early career.
Despite the “drip-fed reminders of contemporary history (the Cuban Missile Crisis! The Kennedy assassination! Weren’t the 60s wild, man!)”, “A Complete Unknown” fails to properly examine the relationship between Dylan’s music and its political context, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent.
The film is filled with “stilted lines” about Dylan betraying the folk genre by embracing “souped-up rock”, said Madison Bloom in Pitchfork. Mangold’s attempts to capture the fallout is “contrived at best, laughable at worst”. “Dylan’s electric Newport set falls into the latter camp”, with its hokey close-ups of “furious concertgoers enraged by the ruckus”.
It’s clear the director is “content to indulge in the most shop-worn tropes of musical biopics”; when Dylan “zips off” on his motorbike, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) calls after him “Be careful on that thing!”, getting a “nervous chuckle” from cinema-goers who are only too aware of the musician’s 1966 accident. Scenes like this contribute nothing to the “emotional core” of the film: they exist simply to “reward us for what we already know” and remind us of the “parchment-thin plot”.
A ‘seductive’ performance
Still, “Chalamet is a hypnotic Dylan”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. He gives a “hilarious and seductive” performance, transforming into the “puckish”, “witty” Dylan who becomes an “unwilling leader of his generation”.
The Hollywood star does an admirable job of capturing the “charisma of Dylan’s inchoate, anti-matter, read-between-the-lines personality”, agreed Owen Gleiberman in Variety. And he does all his own singing: when he takes out the guitar to sing “Song to Woody”, something “magical” happens. With his “nasal and slightly clenched voice”, and a “tone as rock-steady as his gaze”, Chalamet “becomes Bob Dylan”.
The female characters are much more than “simple love interests”, said Tim Grierson in Screen Daily. Monica Barbaro is a “revelation” as folk musician Joan Baez, bringing an “arresting force” to her “powerful voice and delicate manner”. Both Barbaro and Elle Fanning (who plays a role based on Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo) have “combustible chemistry” with Chalamet, despite it feeling as if he is “a man just always out of reach”.
As the film nears its ending and Dylan becomes “trapped by fame”, Chalamet’s character gets “pricklier and much more interesting”, said James on the BBC website. “You can finally feel an energy that can’t be restrained and that should have been in the film all along.” In all, despite its faults, “A Complete Unknown” is still a “strikingly well-made musical drama with pitch-perfect performances”, said Empire.