Miles Salter reviews the new Bob Dylan biopic.
By Miles Salter
The nose is sensational. In the numerous reviews that exist of A Complete Unknown, the new biopic based on Bob Dylan’s formative artistic years, I haven’t seen anybody mention it. But it’s brilliant, this fake beak resting on Timothée Chalamet’s face, encapsulating an attention to detail which fills this hugely enjoyable movie. The cars, the clothes, the business logos, the television broadcasts, the machines that dispense Coca-Cola – everything points towards the early to mid ’60s in America. At times it’s scarily real – the sequence depicting the height of the Cuban missile crisis is frighteningly effective, as people scramble to leave New York.
That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s absolutely true to what took place as a young folk singer took the world by storm between 1961 and 1965. Pete Seeger (played superbly by Edward Norton, who captures the elder statesman’s folksy and honourable statesmanship) wasn’t there when Dylan turned up at Woody Guthrie’s bedside in 1961, just a few days after arriving in New York. And the much-quoted ‘Judas’ insult, thrown to Dylan when he went electric, didn’t occur at Newport Folk Festival, as the film would have us believe, but instead occurred in Manchester the same year. Some of the lines include sly moments of humour. ‘Be careful on that thing,’ Seeger says to Dylan in the movie, as the singer climbs on board his motorcycle. Well, if you know, you know.
What I loved about this film was the absence of hagiography. Whilst it never fails to show how brilliant Dylan was (this is the man who wrote Masters of War, Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, Blowing in the Wind, Maggie’s Farm and Like A Rolling Stone, all before he was 25), it also depicts an artist who was self-centred and unphased by the concerns of others. He has no issue with keeping up others late at night whilst working on another minor masterpiece – it doesn’t occur to him that he’s stopping somebody from getting some sleep. This does not escape the attention of Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro. ‘You’re kind of an asshole,’ she tells Bob at one point.
The film rockets through four years, occasionally tripping up over itself. ‘We broke up, remember?’ says Sylvie Russo (a stand in for Bob’s politically minded squeeze Suze Rotolo), when the singer pitches up at her house one night, with no previous reference that they went their separate ways. Russo, played by Elle Fanning, adores the singer, but falters when she realises his involvement with Baez. Rotolo was quite an influence on Dylan, helping his songwriting become more political, but the film underestimates her vital role in his development.
As for Chalamet, he captures Dylan’s speaking voice and mannerisms exceptionally well. His Dylan is detached, a quiet observer who doesn’t want to get involved with much more than his own ambition. He’s aloof, lacking in empathy, struggling to connect. As at least one critic has pointed out, the film ignores Dylan’s more playful, humorous side – there’s little allusion to the singer who performed the genuinely funny Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues on his way to the top. Instead we get a Bob who is surly, serious, somewhat conceited, and absolutely determined to do things his own way. The Newport Folk Festival organisers wanted to play it safe. Dylan plugs in with his new band, cuts lose, and the stage is soon littered with flying ephemera from a divided crowd. Some people look jolly cross. Others loved it. It might not be a complete truth (what film is?) but it captures a time and at least one side of a mercurial artist very well.
The caption at the end summarises the lives of the key players, mentioning Dylan’s award for Nobel Prize for Literature. ‘Dylan didn’t attend,’ says the caption.
As for that prosthetic nose… whoever did the make-up should be in line for an Oscar.
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now.
Miles Salter fronts the York-based band Miles and The Chain Gang. Their new single, Wildcats and Koalas, is available to stream on Spotify.
