FILM/ REVIEW
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Rated R
141 Minutes
Released December 25th
One of the first scenes shot for A Complete Unknown is set in a hospital where legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie (played by Scoot McNairy) is recovering from illness. It’s one of the most poignant passages in the film, as you can feel the “folksinger torch” being passed from Guthrie to Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Timothee Chalamet, as “Dylan,” plays one of Dylan’s first songs, “Song to Woody,” The actor remembers that he went home and wept that night. He says that the song is “this song I’ve been living with forever, and I feel like we brought it to life.” Chalamet embodies not only the personality but also the musical identity of his role. Because of Chalamet’s talent, Director James Mangold can relate this story of the transformations in Dylan’s music through the music itself.
The film paints a picture of Dylan’s early years in New York City, from the day he arrived there in 1962 to try to make his mark in folk music clubs with only a few dollars and his guitar, through his growth into a major artist who can call his own shots in artistic choices, to his unconventional appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The story is told chronologically, which allows the audience to identify with the artist’s experience.
It was a major project for production designer Frnacois Andouy and costume designer Ariane Phillips to recreate the New York City of Dylan’s early years there, as none of that environment still exists. The places, such as Greenwich Village, are still there, but they’re not the same. The challenge, as they saw it, was not to recreate exactly but to design what it felt like. Because of the pandemic delay, they had time to do the research necessary to get the locations and the fashions right.
Chalamet also benefitted from the extra preparation time caused by the pandemic. He became a Dylan superfan and pushed himself to learn the history and the music. He employed a vocal coach, guitar teacher, movement coach, and harmonica teacher. He wrote Dylan lyrics on paper and posted them on his wall. He visited Dylan’s childhood home in Minnesota, where the singer lived with his family from age 6 to 18, and went through the records Dylan had collected as a teen. He visited the high school where Dylan had played on stage with his own band and found a drawing that teenage Dylan had made of Woody Guthrie. Of Dylan’s home, Chalamet felt, “You’re connected to destiny. But that connection is fragile.” In concept, he created Chalamet University and majored in Bob Dylan.
As with many stars, Dylan could be hard-headed and obstinate. Chalamet portrays his personality without making a judgment. He creates just the right sense of self-styled confidence that the budding folk singer needs to draw from his psyche to throw his unconventional style out to his audience and brave their possibly cynical response. Chalamet is no stranger to music. He sings and plays all the songs live on set for the movie. He had grown up as a rap and hip-hop fan and rapped on YouTube as Lil’ Timmy Tim. For Call Me By Your Name (2017), he studied piano for months to play classical pieces skillfully in character. He has the vivid imagination as an actor to see young Dylan not as a historical figure, but as a real, vibrant entity.
Edward Norton is perfectly cast as Seeger. who carries the film along with Chalamet and was his mentor when he first arrived in New York. Norton also learned to play and sing Seeger’s songs himself and researched his character intensively from old film and TV clips. Norton hadn’t played the guitar for years and wasn’t sure he’d be able to master the instrument, but he transformed into a Seeger so real it’s uncanny.
He even mastered Seeger’s speaking patterns. The contrast between Seeger and Dylan is a key to how both Dylan’s style developed. Seeger had a gentle yet firm style of inspiring his audience to sing along and create what we would today call a “flash mob” of sorts, an experience that was almost like a secular church service, generating the magic of harmony using the audience as an instrument. Dylan became the anti-Seeger, the non-mellifluous singer with controversial messages, making his audiences think. Elle Fanning as “Sylvie Russo,” plays Dylan’s girlfriend, whose real name was Suze Rotolo. Dylan describes Rotolo today as “the could-be dream lover of my lifetime.”
This film is one of the better musical biographies of an icon of our time because the story is told gracefully and honestly through music. The talent of director Mangold is partnered with the talents and complete immersion in the role of Dylan by Chalamet. I grew up listening to Dylan and I would never have thought Chalamet could become him on screen, but I was pleasantly surprised and amazed.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
