Nick Newman’s review published on Letterboxd:
• Decent movie about having swag
• Admirably honest about realizing folk music kind of sucks
• Pretty limp Dylan movie
• So by-the-numbers as a biopic it almost implies outsider art
• Bad movie
I started tallying how many times the compendium of biopic clichés earned a “come ON.” Final count: eight. Which doesn’t account for scores of unintended laughs and pffs. Kinda admire James Mangold for so letting Walk Hard roll off his back; do not admire James Mangold for making this movie.
Ever wonder how a kid fresh off the boat from Minnesota became our greatest musician? A Complete Unknown has your answer: he just kinda bent over a sheet of paper, strumming a guitar and going “How… many… roads… must a man… walk… down…”
Towards the end, as Tim Dylan gets ready to take the stage at Newport—one of the ten most-consequential moments in rock history, a watershed for which Mangold lacks sufficient dramatic faith and grafts the year-later "Judas" incident onto while cutting "play it fucking loud" down to family-friendly size—I was amazed how little concept A Complete Unknown has of how, when, why, by what means this guy I’m watching wrote and recorded this music. Bob Dylan’s strumming in his first studio session and has a debut album two scenes later? If you say so. What went into going electric? I have less sense after spending 140 minutes here. If you want to argue that's the complete-unknown of it all it sure doesn't jibe with "Hi I'm Al Kooper and I'll play keys on this song you're about to record, I wonder what it's called, okay a one and a two and a..."
A Complete Unknown ends with a title card informing us Bob Dylan has released 55 albums. This does not, in any conceivable way, square with his output. I’m going insane every time I try cracking how that number got tabulated. Seriously: any clue?
Chalamet is fine, much as someone thrown in the deep end acquits themselves for not drowning. My Cathedral co-star Monica Barbaro is quite good as Joan Baez and I sincerely hope her awards run brings more people to that film.
Let's forget this ever happened.
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