„A Complete Unknown” directed by James Mangold is a film about 4 years in the life of Bob Dylan – before he became completely famous. We meet Bobby when he arrived in New York in 1961. This 20-year-old boy wanted to visit his idol Woody Gurthie – he finally found him in a hospital in New Jersey and there played a song that he had written for him. He was lucky because Woody was visited in the hospital by his friend Pete Seeger and it was him who helped the young musician to appear in the music community.
Creating biographical films or films inspired by the history of specific people is somewhat more difficult than coming up with a fictional film script. In the first case, it is impossible to avoid comparisons of the stories presented in the film with the life of the hero. Especially for his loyal fans.
For those who, like me, did not know neither the entire biography of Bob Dylan nor his discography, this is a film about a young boy who was in the right places at the right time and met people who believed in his talent. And about songs that I didn’t know at all. I admit that when I heard the song „Like a Rolling Stone”, I perked up immediately – it was the song that ended the film, and the Newport Folk Festival in 1995, when Bob Dylan swapped his classical guitar for an electric one (which didn’t quite meet with the approval of the audience and the organizers). In the film „A Complete Unknown”, James Mangold focuses exclusively on the 4 years before „Like a Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan’s first appearances in clubs, his relationships with managers, musicians, women… And in all of this, Bob as a nonchalant musician convinced of his uniqueness.
The film didn’t draw me in completely, nor did it make me hum a different song after leaving the cinema than the last one, which I had already known. But I think it’s worth seeing, if only because of the Newport Festival and the interesting acting of Timothée Chalamet (who performed all of Dylan’s songs), Edward Norton (playing Pete Seeger) and Boyd Holbrook (as Johnny Cash).
The film received 8 Oscar nominations, including for directing and for leading and supporting actor. For me, it’s not necessarily a film worthy of this statuette – definitely not the same emotions and not the same story as in the case of, for example, „A Star Is Born”, directed by Bradley Cooper (which received only one award in 2019 for best song, „Shallow”).
And what are your impressions of „A Complete Unknown”?