Movie Review: A Complete Unknown

The new movie "A Complete Unknown" is one of those high-quality end-of-year film releases where we know immediately that the main star, Timothée Chalamet, who plays Bob Dylan, is a 100% shoo-in for an Academy Award nomination for best actor and most likely the movie will be nominated for best picture.

Anyone seeing this movie will appreciate the work and practice it must have taken for Chalamet to master Dylan's voice, which arguably has an unusual, but not high-quality sound. The reason why Dylan was so significant is that he became relevant at the exact perfect time in the 1960s and is more well known for the lyrics of the songs he wrote rather than the quality sound of the music. In the 1960s Bob Dylan was known as the "The Voice of a Generation".

The movie A Complete Unknown is a story told by showing different musical performances by Dylan, as he starts as a completely unknown singer, wandering the streets of New York City to a few years later one of the most famous people in the world. During his early years, Dylan cheated on two of his girlfriends at the same time, Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, and Sylvie Russo, played by Elle Fanning. The back and forth breakups and reconnecting with these two women is a big part of this story.

Chalamet also did a great job mastering Dylan's tired, drunk-like way of talking, sometimes seeming like he is about to fall asleep or fall over while walking around or even standing up. There was no obvious showing of drug use or heavy drinking to explain Dylan's tired-like and word-slurring demeanor, but the chain-smoking by Dylan and too many other performers was annoyingly too much.

This story demonstrates, like some recent Whitney Houston movies and documentaries, how difficult it is to gain the heights of worldwide fame and then have to deal with the many downsides that come with a huge spotlight that never ends. One of the better scenes was when an audience booed Dylan for singing songs that were different than what they expected, angering Dylan who never wanted anyone but himself dictating the direction of his singing career.

One of the subplots in this movie, I thought was completely unnecessary was the frequent visits that Dylan and Pete Seeger made to a mute and dying Woody Guthrie in a hospital. This part of the story should not have been such a large part of this film, especially since Woody Guthrie, played by Scoot McNairy never says a word during all of the hospital scenes.

Actor Edward Norton plays singer/manager Pete Seeger and friend of Bob Dylan in a part that was relatively small, considering the importance of Seeger discovering Dylan in the early 1960s. There is a great deal of singing in this film, as the story is connected by several different Dylan and Dylan/Baez singing performances, with many of their most famous hits.

The acting in his film is very good by all of the actors, with a strong possibility that Chalamet will win his first ever Academy Award for best actor.

Overall, I agree with the middle-of-the-road Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 79% for this movie and give it a solid recommendation.