Based on a ten-year-old part-bio, Dylan Goes Electric!, by Elijah Wald, and brilliantly refashioned by eclectic writer/director James Mangold, A Complete Unknown is, of course, about Bob. Dylan. Bob Dylan, the genius singer/songwriter who is the only lyricist to have won the Nobel Prize. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it only relates a segment of Dylan’s life, from when he arrived in New York at the start of the mighty Sixties, penniless, unknown, and a mystery, until he upended the American folk scene by “going electric” at the Newport Folk Festival. Timothée Chalamet stuns as the young Bob, nailing his voice, his singing, his arrogance, his self-certainty, and he is backed up by Ed Norton note-perfect as Bob Seeger, Elle Fanning wonderful as the discarded girlfriend, and Monica Barbero immersive as Joan Baez. The cinematography is excellent, especially in the raucous clubs and on the various stages, the plot zings without concession to the viewer, and the 60s settings are a pleasure in themselves. To my mind, A Complete Unknown remakes the genre of the music bio. Go see it.
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