Movie #3349 ........................."A Complete Unknown" (theatre)

 

Movie #3349 "A Complete Unknown" (theatre) is not a biopic that will include all of Bob Dylan's life thus far  --  it covers his rise from "A Complete Unknown" to a revolutionary influencer of the music world.  The film shows how he meets his icons and hobnobs with them , how he spends an exorbitant amount of time writing music, and how he becomes somewhat of an activist writing  protest songs  through a girl he meets  (in this film her name is Sylvie).  His songs could be considered  simple (full of repetition of same words or same musical chords)  , his lyrics oftentimes "Poetic" (he won nobel prize for literature along the way),  and his music clearly spoke for the 60s.  I was a teen living through that time period, and when you started playing guitar (and many of us did at the time --- it was the thing to do) , you would learn his songs first --- easy chords, lots of repetition, that masked a powerful theme - songs like "blowing in the wind," "Don't think twice, it's all right," and "We Shall Overcome" were played over and over and over while we tried to deal with a very confusing world.  His music might not shake the world at the time,  but in looking back, the film suggests it was  a great start to a revolution in music, with Dylan at the helm.  How does the film prove his influence?  How does it convey tis mystique he used to gain audiences?   Well, don't go in expecting anything more than a lot of music (A LOT --- way more than Wicked --- this is a juke box movie that moves from one song to the next to the next....)  the film is full of  a lot of moments of stoic Bob Dylan saying very little lines explaining how he feels on issues ---- the women around him feel and express, but Bob moves from one scene to the next  and tells the stories and how he feels pretty much through his  music.  I don't know how they will award this film in the academy --- I think Edward Norton does enough to get a  nomination for a secondary role, but not sure about Timothee Chalamet --- he's learned how to sing like him, walk like him, becomes stoic like him, but not sure there are enough highs and lows shown --- we know he is one of the best younger actors we have in present time, but just not sure there's enough to measure his ability here.  In talking about this film, I have heard it compared to the Elton John  and Freddie Mercury biopics--- this movie is not like either one --- they are more "entertaining" full of angst, energy, whereas  this is slow and tense.  But it's a movie that needed to be made since Bob Dylan has been  such a huge influence on our music throughout the years.  I'd give this a 4 out of 5.  Not sure it is for everybody --- esp. those who like a lot of action and energy in their movies.

"A COMPLETE UNKNOWN'    2024     R     2 hours and 21 minutes    

in 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in NYC with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance  that reverberates worldwide.  Set in the influential NYC music scene of the early 1960s, "A Complete Unknown" follows teenage Minnesota musician Dylan's meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts  as his songs and his mystique become a worldwide sensation that culminates in his groundbreaking performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.  

Director:  James Mangold

Writers:  James Mangold, Jay Cocks, Elijah Waid

Actors:  Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning