Review: A Complete Unknown

*Spoiler Alert* for the film A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown is a biopic of Bob Dylan that has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This film is currently only in theaters, so I have watched this film only once. While I am relying much on my memory of the film, I am also using other reviews and sources on the film. I believe that this film should be separated into three categories when reviewing it. First being the actual filmmaking. The production design, the costuming, the cinematography, and the sound design are all extremely well done. Second is the acting, which has been praised by the academy and was, in my opinion, well done. The third element that should be separated is the actual writing. The overall plot and the writing had more issues and needs to be discussed. 

On the filmmaking side A Complete Unknown has been nominated for Best Sound and Best Achievement in Costume Design. Both of these awards have been overlooked in the past, especially the awards on sound. You’ll notice the lack of descriptors with this award, just being titled ‘best sound’. Many people in the filmmaking community have issues with this award, as it does not show the magnitude of importance for sound and many people call for sound to be two separate categories; Best Sound in Production and Best Sound Editing. That point noted, the sound design was very well done in this film. The production sound was done in a very complicated and difficult way that led to a striking effect in the finished film. For the performance scenes the sound department worked to create a sound system on set that mimicked sound systems at real concerts. The recording mixer has a “background in recording and mixing live tours with bands such as Yes and Supertramp.” (Giardina). This creates a more surround-sound scape that brings the audience into the film. It makes you feel like you are really in a concert with the actors. The sound mixing adds to this effect while also adding in smaller, more intimate moments with the actions going on off stage. Taking the last performance of the film as an example, we see the fight over the sound board to try and stop Bob Dylan from performing his electric songs. When we cut to the sound board fight, the sound mixing does a great job of keeping the concert in the background while having the main sounds be from what is being shown. The only moments of issue I had with the sound mixing is when it came to Bob Dylan’s motorcycle. This may be just because I saw this in theaters, but the motorcycle always seemed way too loud, louder than even the music in the film. Other than this small issue, the sound production and sound editing were extremely well done. I do believe that this film has a shot at winning this category. 

All period pieces have a unique ability to work with costume design in both a historically accurate and artistic way. A Complete Unknown is no different as the Costume Designer was working with early to mid 60s fashion. But she also got to work with the references that are available for the artists the film portrays. While the Costume Designer did a great job with the historical aspects of the costumes, I would like to focus on the well done artistic choices of the costuming. Bob Dylan, played by Timothée Chalamet, begins this film as a 19 year old with very little money who has been traveling for a while. This leads to costumes at the beginning of the film being loose and very worn in (Fig. 1). Over the four year period of the film we see Dylan come into his own in a parallel to how the 60s fashion evolved at the same time. His clothes become more sleek. They stay casual for a while before becoming very stylized as he leans into a more pop-star aesthetic (Fig. 2). The outfits that were actually worn by Dylan at this time are the most well documented in this four year period, as he has become a famous sensation. So these outfits are taken from reality and created for this film. 

Figure 1. Timothée Chalamet’s first costume in the film

Figure 2. Example of wardrobe for Dylan at the end of the film

While his clothes evolved to reflect how his fame and personality evolved, the most interesting piece of wardrobe to me is his sunglasses. Sunglasses were very popular in the 60s for many reasons. They became more affordable for the common person at this time. And many celebrities wore them a lot, making them very popular. It seems historically accurate that Bob Dylan wore many sunglasses at the time period of the end of this film. What is most interesting is how the film uses the sunglasses for story and character purposes. As Dylan gets more popular throughout the film, his glasses get bigger and darker. He wears them almost all the time, even indoors. They signify that he is not being his true self, he is hiding his real persona. When he has emotional moments or when he speaks on something he feels is real, he removes his glasses. For example, when he tried to get Sylvie to stay with him at the end of the film, he removed his glasses. This is a very simple, yet effective use of wardrobe to show the changes in a character’s mind.

Moving on to the acting in this film, there has been much discussion on this. Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan from the years 1961 to 1965. In the early part of the film, I was struck by the powerful quietness of Chalamet. He did a fairly good job playing a 19 year old with nothing but confidence and his music. He is quiet, but you can see glimpses of the character that is to be created by the plot. As the film continues, his performance can get a little flat and monotone, but it seems that Chalamet is working well with the script that was given to him. He is not doing a perfect replica of what Dylan was really like, but he does a good job of creating a character on his own. 

I really enjoyed Edward Norton’s portrayal of Pete Seeger in this film. He plays an extension of the mentor in this story and so his character changes very little over the course of this film. Given this, Norton nailed down a very specific character to play in this plot. He is calm, communicative, and pretty happy. The most interesting scene to me for Norton’s portrayal is when they do a bit on Dylan’s TV appearance with Steeger. Norton is running this show, which is very family friendly. I found it interesting that he leaned into an almost Mr. Rogers performance for this moment. When watching this scene I was drawn to this performance as I felt that it fit the character so well and was played in a perfect way by Norton. I believe he has earned his nomination for best supporting actor this year, and I do believe he has a shot at winning this category. 

There were two main love interests for Bob Dylan in this film, both based on real people. Sylvie Russo is played by Elle Fanning, and the character is based on Suze Rotolo, a real person who Dylan dated. The other main love interest in this film is Joan Baez played by Monica Barbaro. Joan Baez is a real singer/songwriter who had a relationship with Bob Dylan, as portrayed in the film. She is known for folk music with a message of social justice. Both Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro are great actresses who play off Chalamet quite well. Elle Fanning is playing a character that is meant to be fiery and an advocate. Fanning plays this as well as she can within the style of this film. As mentioned before, Chalamet has a very quiet performance of Dylan, which is a reflection of the film as a whole. It seems like Fanning struggled between her character’s advocacy and the film’s quietness. But I really enjoyed her performance. She worked well with what she was given (which will be discussed with the writing). Monica Barbaro felt very monotone with her character at times, but I cannot tell if this is due to the writing or her acting. She had her work cut out for her with her singing, as the character she is playing is famous for her incredible voice. She sang well in this film, probably not as well as Joan Baez, but that may be impossible. 

The last main element that needs to be discussed is the writing. The film has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The plot of this film is based on a book titled Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties written by Elijah Wald. The story is a very small look at Dylan’s life, just covering the years 1961-1965. The story starts with Bob Dylan arriving in New York looking for his hero Woody Guthrie, who has been hospitalized. He meets Pete Seeger at the hospital with Woody and he plays a song he has written for Woody. Seeger likes him and takes him under his wing. Bob Dylan works his way up in the industry, releasing his first album of covers. His girlfriend, Sylvie, urges him to sing his own songs. While his girlfriend is out of town, he sleeps with Joan, leading to a complicated will-they-won’t-they with Sylvie. He records his own songs, and becomes more and more famous. As his fame increases and he builds his band, he becomes interested in writing songs with the genre of rock and roll, he wants to go electric. He records rock and roll songs, but still ends up at the folk festival he has performed at before. He plays electric against the council of Seeger and he gets booed at the festival. The film ends with Sylvie officially breaking up with Dylan. The last scene is a quiet moment between Woody and Dylan before Dylan leaves him. 

Based on this summary I am sure you can tell that this film is not like other biopics of singer/songwriters. For example, Elton John’s and Freddie Mercury’s biopics cover a much longer time period and are much more dramatic, with drug use discussions and such. A Complete Unknown is a much smaller story just covering one aspect of Dylan’s career, his choice to go electric. Because of this fact, those that are not as familiar with Bob Dylan’s career and music might not be as interested in this film. I went into watching this film knowing that Bob Dylan went from folk to rock without knowing why, so I was somewhat interested in understanding the point of this film. Those that do not already know this about Dylan may not be as interested in this concept. 

The story itself is interesting, how it was told has some issues. The film was slow and a bit monotone at times. There were moments of excitement, and even jokes told with the filmmaking, but much of the film is just trudging along. In a lot of the smaller scenes I felt like Dylan was just going along with what others did. There were not many instances of the character making a decision for himself, other than a few big ones. I did not understand what the character wanted in each individual scene, only in the story overall. There is also the issue with the overall plot that there was no broad question asked for the audience to wrestle with. All good films ask the audience to analyze their mindsets or ideas of the world in a new way. This film was not really that moving because it does not ask any big questions like this. 

The other main criticism that I agree with for the writing has to do with how they wrote the women in this film. While they gave Sylvie some character with the small mention of her interest in activism and her pushing Dylan to be himself, there is not much of her personality in this film. She, like Dylan in a way, seems to be just going along with the plot because it needs to happen. Her only character choices were to flip between wanting to be with Dylan and not wanting to be with him. Joan’s character also gives very little reason to the audience for why she does what she does. I did not understand why she chose to sleep with Dylan the first time nor why she got angry with him later in the film. It felt like she just needed to do these things to satisfy the plot. I am sure that in reality there were some more reasons for her actions. But it felt like the film was just saying that all women wanted to sleep with Dylan, so there was no reason for the filmmakers to give the women more of a justification for their actions when they choose to do just that. The women in this film are 2 dimensional characters with only the want to either be with Dylan or not be with him. 

Given all of this, I do believe that this film is still a good watch, especially if you like Bob Dylan and his music. I do believe that the film has its merits, and should be seriously considered for the filmmaking and acting awards. It is a solid film with well done technical bits. But the writing is lacking. This is why I do not believe this film merits the best film award or the best adapted screenplay award.