3 min to read
A Complete Unknown
Is Timothee Chalamet's newest film as good as they say?
The Good: This movie is almost as good as you can get with the technical aspects of a movie. The camerawork and lighting were phenomenal. The acting was A+, and the costumes and sets were perfect for their time. Additionally, the concert scenes in the movie were so enjoyable. Thimothee Chalamet sang and performed every song that is shown in the movie, so all the concerts felt so authentic and valuable to be a part of. I also loved how they showed Bob Dylan as an incredible songwriter and musician. Of the few musician biopics that I’ve seen, none of them constantly showed the musician sitting at a table or desk writing words to songs and figuring out the proper chords on the guitar like this one did. Seeing the writing of the songs take place made the concerts where the songs were sung be even more impactful.
The Meh: I think the title of the movie completely encapsulates one of my first frustrations with the movie. The movie treats Bob Dylan as a complete unknown, not telling us who he really is, why he has a love for music, and what drives him to be a musician. Because the movie treats him like this, the movie never gave me a reason to appreciate him as a person. Yes, his music is touching, but as a character in a movie he was extremely difficult to love, follow, and want to spend time with. To add to these struggles, I couldn’t understand every 3rd sentence Timothee Chalamet was saying, only adding to my frustrations.
The Bad: What really bothered me the most about the movie is that I never understood the reason or the “why” for making the movie. Other biopics not only show the good and the bad of the individual, but they also seem to show you the intention, purpose, and impact of the story being told. In the movie Oppenheimer we learn of how brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer was at science and theory, but we also learn how flawed he was in his relationships with others. We learn that during the creation and theorizing of the bomb in Los Alamos how risky the creation of the bomb was and we learn of the catastrophic impacts and implications the creation of the bomb could have. This and other moments in the movies showed the purpose of the story of Oppenheimer and how the story still impacts the world we live in today. For this movie I didn’t have any of that spark. It was as if they just started the story of Bob Dylan once he got to New York. We basically went concert to concert, not learning much about him (besides learning his new songs), and the movie just ends after an “important” concert. The plot had no weight and felt completely unimportant, which is sad because other musician biopics have been made that actually attempt to make the musician seem and appear more important. All of this, and the fact that the film showed a lot of Bob Dylan being a jerk and a tool, made me not like and lose respect for Bob Dylan, which I don’t think was the goal of the movie. A biopic should show the triumphs and the failures of an individual, and the only “triumphs” shown in this movie were his songs
Overall: Despite loving the way the movie looked, was shot, and acted, there was never a wow factor for the movie that propels this movie to greatness. I was hoping I would love this movie, especially since I enjoy the work of James Mangold and Timothee Chalamet, but I was more disappointed than wowed.
Rating: 3.5/5 (very close to a 3/5)
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