A Complete Unknown

This is what I expected. I enter a Dylan biopic more as a critic than an audience member. I figured I'd already know most of the content of the movie, and would just be in it out of curiosity for how they executed, and with any luck, for some profound experience. It ended up just being curiosity. The experience was tame; again, I already know all of these songs and all of these stories far too well. You'd need an artistically adventurous take on Dylan. This was not; this was sheer biopic. So all I have to offer is criticism.

They executed well. It feels pretty faithful, if Hollywoodized at times. It all starts with Dylan himself: Chalamet. I didn't expect to like him in Dune and I really did. Here again I dig him. I got over his voice acting that turned me off the trailer. Got over it quickly. His vocal performance is all in all fairly accurate. Certainly distinguishable, but of a similar character. Sometimes he sings worse than Dylan, other times better. I know the songs well enough to see where he strays. Sometimes he enunciates a word I never understood in the original; other times he obscures a word that deserves more presentation. Overall the character of his voice is close enough. The rest of his performance, besides the voice, conveys Dylan's contrary and aloof natures. He's a pain in the ass. His sentimentality falters when it really matters. He's hopelessly romantic -- hopeless because his ego can't abide anyone else's priorities. Even if he wasn't so musically inspired during this time period, his personality wouldn't accommodate the compromises of enduring romance. It's tragic because he sounds like such a sweetheart in the songs, and the songs suggest he wants to be one (see Blood on the Tracks).

I feel sorry for Suze, though you always wonder how much to blame the clingy one for letting themselves cling. Even if Bob is a jerk, there's still room to blame Suze for falling back into him over and over. Then if you blame Suze for that, you respect her dilemma as she finds the inspiration of her life (perhaps?) in this difficult figure.

Speaking of ambiguous blame, I don't blame Pete Seeger for lamenting Bob's electrification, nor do I blame Bob for electrifying, though both could have been more graceful. Bob has every right to pursue his artistic whims, even if you think H61 is morally and artistically inferior to the protest songs. The folk scene has every right to lament, even if they over-moralize what's really just a confused wunderkind. I don't really buy his folk prophet persona, so when he abandons it, I'm not surprised. He was talented at shapeshifting, which doesn't mean each shape was inauthentic, yet suggests no shape was the whole story as the media likes to compartmentalize. He explicitly and implicitly refuses to be boxed in, because he's a shapeshifter, and that's hard for people to accept. It would be especially hard in 1963, before you know he's a shapeshifter. You just think he's entirely yours. It would be devastating to watch him shift, even if you like rock & roll. It would feel like you were losing a loved one, such was the extent of his identity swings.

The experience was tame for someone who knows the material so well, yet they did it well. It's a legit biopic. They didn't have to resort to abstractions like I'm Not There (though their scope was smaller). It's a real Dylan biopic! The first? It's not easy to do, but they did a good job. Chalamet certainly helped. I'm surprised he bothered himself with this role, auspicious as he is these days. I'm surprised random people seem to like this movie. I guess it's more for them than me, somehow. I don't know why people would care. I'm so used to being the only person around me who cares about Bob Dylan. I don't understand other people's relationships with him, mine feels so ancient and elemental. Of course there's so much I don't know about Bob. He's just been around so long, and been so prolific, it's hard to know him entirely. But I do feel like I'm in the top 1% of the population in terms of Dylan fandom. So it's hard to imagine this movie seeing mainstream success. Yet somehow it's not for me, it's for the 99%. Some of them may join the 1% because of it. Then it's not 1% anymore, is it.

It's a pretty basic biopic, though its deeply original protagonist propels it beyond others. I wish they would have done something more adventurous. It just tells the story. But the fact that it didn't offend me is pretty impressive. It's easy to offend me on these matters.

Edit: People asked what made me cringe in a biopic about a figure I know and love; I didn't have a good answer, but here it is now: the audience whooping and singing along during his acoustic performances. I've never seen such a thing in the videos; in fact, he's been characterized by his attentive audiences. They don't scream through the song, they listen closely to the words. They're mesmerized. They aren't shouting "for the times they are a changin" at each refrain.

    Also, some accurate things are too extreme, like the response at '65 Newport.