A Complete Unknown (2025) Review
How many of you have ever felt personally victimised by a talented twat?
Dir. James Mangold
Screenplay: James Mangold and Jay Cocks
So first off, this is less of a review of the filmmaking craft of A Complete Unknown and more of a personal response to my experience of watching it. I don’t mind telling you, I was triggered.
It’s a wonderful performance from Timothée Chalamet. I love him. He does a great job of reinterpreting Bob Dylan’s music, singing nasally and playing guitar and harmonica - often at the same time.
In fact, all of the performances are great. Monica Barbaro is a standout as Joan Baez; Edward Norton is touching as Pete Seeger, equal parts crushed and hopeful; and Elle Fanning is lovely as Sylvie Russo (Suze Rotolo in real life), an artist in her own right and Dylan’s first New York girlfriend.
Buuuuut…. I found the film itself quite slow and unsatisfying.
Structurally, it doesn’t have the classic music biopic story structure that keeps everyone hooked: the loveable underdog trying to make it; the thrill of reaching the mountain top; the disillusionment of success; the fall from grace; and the heartwarming recovery, this time wiser and stronger. James Mangold nailed this structure in Walk the Line; his Johnny Cash biopic - and one of the best music biopics ever. He wants to break the format in this movie. And he does - to mixed success. It’s a good film. But it felt flat and I wasn’t hooked.
This film shares almost no origin story of Bob Dylan; you never really learn who he is, where he comes from, what he likes, his hopes or his dreams. He just washes up in New York already who he is going to be. I guess that’s the point, and it seems to be how it happened. It’s certainly how his contemporaries talk about stumbling across him. But there’s not a lot to connect to emotionally.
The film has a huge likability problem. In Walk the Line, even though he still behaves pretty badly - there is a vulnerability, earnestness and goodness to Johnny Cash’s character (played by Joaquin Phoenix); plus the insanely romantic connection between Cash and Reese Witherspoon’s, June Carter keeps you watching and rooting for both of them.
In A Complete Unknown, with the best will in the world, Bob Dylan as a character comes across as a total nightmare. The kind of self-centred person who will use you and then stab you in the back. The whole thing kind of bummed me out. It was like when successful businessmen are asked how they achieved their success, and they don’t mention that their wife/ mum/ sister/ girlfriend worked at their company for free, looked after his kids, introduced him to a key contact, and took care of all the chores so that he could get the business off the ground.
This is a story less about Dylan, and more about what it was like to witness his sudden arrival on the 1960s folk scene. Thrilling and - for the people who got closest to him - frequently devastating. It is also an unwitting cautionary tale about what it means to be in the inner circle of someone who is talented, mean, preternaturally determined and superior. It’s a really interesting look at the work life of an artist. But I didn’t enjoy being in Dylan’s orbit. His character is written as a clear archetype: The Talented Twat.
My Non Exhaustive Guide to The Talented Twat
(I have known a few )
They are sure they are a genius and you need to respect that.
Being kind doesn’t matter because they are so clever.
Their brain is too special for social norms like care and respect.
Their time is more precious than yours.
They will outsource their basic needs to whoever is willing to meet them. This could be emotional labour, shelter, free professional services or domestic tasks. If you love them, that’s your problem now.
Listen to them when they are talking. Just listen. Don’t talk back. Just agree.
When (not if) they are ever mean to you, don’t make a big deal out of it. That would be unempathetic. Instead, have you tried being more resilient?
When they insult you, it was just a joke.
If you insult them, how dare you.
In real life, and in the film, this character is boring and exhausting. It’s the kind of guy you have a crush on in your late teens; and a personality that anyone of any gender will fall for over and over again until the moment that they come-of-age and cure low self-esteem.
My favourite thing about A Complete Unknown is that it introduced me to Joan Baez’s powerhouse doomed love anthem, Diamonds and Rust. It’s a folk-tale, an epic poem and a ballad all in one. It’s a perfect conjuring of the ecstasy and sadness of a stormy relationship; and a document of her three year relationship with Bob Dylan.
The line that sticks out to me the most is, “My poetry was lousy, you said”. This is the QUEEN of Folk, being insulted by A Complete Unknown. Don’t piss me off!!
In reality, I think dating somebody who insults you, your art or your talent is NOT okay. These kinds of “bring you down a peg or two” relationships are a disease that we MUST eradicate.
I’ve dated more than one person who told me that they found me inspiring or “impressive” before we got together, putting me on a pedestal, constantly asking me for my opinions and advice, only to criticise me relentlessly to prove (presumably to both of us) that I’m not that great.
I just know that Joan gets it.
Listening to Diamonds and Rust taught me that NOBODY, not even The Madonna before Madonna, is safe from loving a talented twat.
One for the Scholars
After you play Diamonds and Rust, listen to this BBC Sounds programme about the song. Shout out to my mum, the original fangirl of Depressed Women Singers, for sending me this educational deep cut.
ANYWAY.
It’s a well-made movie with a super annoying main character. Not one I would watch again.
That’s the end.
Stay safe out there 🖖🏾
#TeamJoan #TeamSuze