“The Times They Are A Changin” for Timothee Chalamet. Chalamet’s five years of preparations have clearly paid off because his performance is nothing short of an honoring tribute to Bob Dylan himself. James Mangold’s biographical music drama, “A Complete Unknown” was amazingly made and very entertaining. Chalamet’s dedication to his role is obvious through his engaging performance and his delivery of vocals. The movie itself is very well-paced and easy to follow.
The film’s plot is primarily about the beginning of Bob Dylan’s career in the folk music scene, set in New York, 1961. In the beginning, the film highlights Dylan’s success as a folk musician. During the first hour, we are introduced to the other characters. We meet fellow folk musician Pete Seeger, who started up Dylan’s career; Sylvie Russo, his girlfriend; and Joan Baez, another musician whom he has an affair with and often duets with. This chunk of the film really showcases the true folk star he was. However, as the movie goes on, it shows Dylan’s desire to find his own musical sound and not to restrict himself to singing covers. These longings lead him to his famous electric sound transition.
Not everything in this movie is shown in a positive light, though. Dylan’s fans have a very negative response to this transition, as it is completely different from what they are used to hearing from Dylan. An infamous instance of this occurred during the Newport Music Festival of 1965. Dylan is announced on stage and the audience is expecting him to play hits like “Blowing In The Wind,” or “The Times They Are A Changin.” but he hits them with a completely different sound with the song “Maggie’s Farm,” which has a complete electric vibe to it. The audience, who are shocked and offended, starts to boo Dylan and are demanding that he play his other songs. This does not stop him though, he continues to play through the crowd’s negative reaction. At the end of the film, we see Dylan at his hotel the morning after his headliner performance. Baez catches him before he exits Newport and he claims that he won. He won because he finally broke free from the limitations that other folk musicians would put on him. He could finally use his own musical sound.
Although Chalamet’s performance was amazing, my favorite character would have to be Sylvie, played by Elle Fanning. Fanning’s way of conveying emotion felt so real during each scene. We really see this in Dylan and Baez’s performance of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” together. Her facial expressions are the thing that stuck out the most. She really shows each emotion differently but very effectively. Sylvie watching Dylan’s and Baez’s duets makes her showcase feelings of jealousy and anger, but also her face highlights a bit of compassion and empathy towards Dylan. Sylvie truly believes in Dylan’s career, but she cannot handle watching him perform with Baez and that is all shown through her expression throughout the movie.
Leading up to its release, Chalamet’s promotions towards the film have made it all the more appealing. Singing Dylan’s songs live on SNL, Dylan record shopping with journalist and musician Nardwuar on Nardwuar’s show, and releasing his covers of Dylan’s songs on Spotify all show Chalamet’s dedication towards playing as Bob Dylan. All of these factors contribute to making “A Complete Unknown” a must-see musical biopic. The acting from each actor shows how much they enjoyed working on this movie. The pacing is perfect, not too short and not too long. Each scene they put in was relevant to Dylan’s life and musical journey, and I was never bored during the whole thing. While some people have complained about the film not being “one hundred percent accurate,” I think that it felt like the 60’s and I think Chalamet resembled a young Bob Dylan a lot. I really don’t think a single thing was done poorly and everyone should see this movie.
