A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
- By STACIE HUNT
Bob Dylan biopic. What a tough assignment. However, the toughness is made softer by the partnership between director and subject. Dylan went over the script line-by-line to bless content. A Complete Unknown is directed and co-written byJames Mangold, who has a history of tackling super-icons. The Oscar-winning biopic, Walk the Line, Johnny Cash’s story, being one of them.
How did Mangold visualize his take on the enigmatic Bob Dylan? He refuses to believe that Dylan’s genius means he isn’t a human being. Mangold tells Rolling Stone, “It’s an act of admiration and love,” pondering Dylan’s journey. “This young man shows up. He’s inspired. I mean, it couldn’t be less complicated.”
Timothée Chalamet must learn guitar, vocals and speech to transform into Bob Dylan. He’s surrounded by an ensemble cast of familiar and not-so-familiar actors playing other iconic real-life geniuses and impactful people in Dylan’s life, so it’s easy to get lost in this Dylan-esque era. Not everyone will be a fan of the film, but Chalamet risks playing a person, who, in his understated words is, “someone who wasn’t a straightforward person, an artist who’s always taken a certain glee in shrouding his true self”. A Complete Unknown opens Christmas Day.
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