A Complete Unknown

posted in: Comedy, Drama, Musical, True story | 0

MOVIE TITLE:   A Complete Unknown

RATING:    R

LENGTH:  2 hours 21 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE:   A

SPONSOR of Today’s movie review:

The soundtrack album was just released and is now available on Amazon.  The vinyl edition will be launched in January 2025.

Here’s the link to the CD: https://amzn.to/41P2kk5

Here’s the link to the streaming version on Amazon Music:  https://amzn.to/4gOsesc  

IN A NUTSHELL:

The music-soaked story takes place in 1961 in New York City, when a complete unknown musician, Bob Dylan, forges relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance at the Newport Folk Festival that reverborated worldwide in 1965.

The film was directed, produced, and written by James Mangold.  Screenwriting help came from Jay Cocks and Elijah Wald.

Already, the film has been nominated for 55 awards and won 14!

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

  •  Kids will be bored unless they’re big fans of musicians from the 1960s.
  • Profanity and some F-bombs
  • A man hits another man.
  • We see a shirtless man.
  • A man hops in and out of bed with different women…if you know what I mean.

THEMES:

  • The power of music and lyrics
  • Competition
  • Social justice
  • Civil rights

THINGS I LIKED:

  • Timothee Chalamet is on fire, having pumped out quite a few leading roles in the past few years.  I had just watched a third viewing of him in Wonka.  He’s able to transform his voice and he did all of his own singing in this movie, after after preparing for this role for 5 years. He also served as one of the producers for this movie.
  • The rest of the cast is also fantastic, including Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, and more. We’re sure to hear some of their names mentioned during awards season.
  • It’s really fun to see so many of the folk singers of the past reincarnated in the talented cast. Younger audiences might understand why Boomers and Gen X were such a fan of these musical legends.
  • Edward Norton is terrific as Pete Seeger, as expected.  He got to play Seeger’s actual 12-string Martin acoustic guitar, known for its unique triangular soundhole.
  • Bob Dylan requested that the film not use Sylvie Russo’s real name because she wasn’t a public person, but a former girlfriend.  She’s played by Elle Fanning.
  • Monica Barbaro is not a professionally-trained singer, but she sounded great and plays the guitar as Joan Baez.
  • The film does a great job painting a picture of the tumultuous 1960s and how music and art changed political conversations and the cultural zeitgeist.
  • Fans of Bob Dylan will definitely enjoy all of the music in the film. I never liked Bob Dylan’s voice but I readily admit he was a thought-provoking poet.
  • Fun fact: the original title for the movie was “Going Electric”.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

  •  Sometimes, it’s hard to understand what people say when they whisper.
  • It’s not exactly a biopic because only a few short years are represented in the life of Bob Dylan.  That being said, they were extremely important years.

FUNNY LINES:

  • “Is he going to bed?” –  Toshi Seeger (Eriko Hatsune)  “He’s just excited because he met one of his heroes tonight.” –  Pete Seeger  (Edward Norton)
  • “Want a bugle?” – Johnny Cash
  • “You know, you’re kind of an a$$hole.” – Joan Baez  (Monica Barbaro)  “Yeah, I guess.” – Bob Dylan  (Timothee Chalamet)      He DID look like one in the movie.  Kind of a jerk, especially to women.

INTERESTING LINES:

  • “Folk songs are supposed to stand the test of time like Shakespeare or something.” – Bob Dylan  (Timothee Chalamet)
  • “When I think about how much I’m going to miss you, I realize I don’t know you.” –  Sylvie Russo   (Elle Fanning)
  • “I love you.  Does that scare you?” – girlfriend  (Laura Kariuki)   “I just met you, so yeah.” – Bob Dylan  (Timothee Chalamet)
  • “We broke up, remember?” – Sylvie Russo  (Elle Fanning)
  • “I want to tell you a little story. A few months back, my friend Woody Guthrie and I, we met a young man.  He dropped in on us out of nowhere and he played us a song. And in that moment, we got a feeling we were getting a glimpse of the future.” – Pete Seeger  (Edward Norton)

MOVIES about music icons LIKE THIS YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE:

WATCH THE Movie Review Mom YOUTUBE REVIEW WITH THIS LINK:

 @MovieReviewMom  @TrinaBoice

Thank you so much for your financial support on Patreon!

Be sure to check out all of the gifts you can receive when you donate to Movie Review Mom on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/m/MovieReviewMom
Follow trinaboice:

Author, university professor

Author of 23 books, university professor, mom of 4 awesome sons, movie critic, ice cream lover. Check out her world travels and tips at www.EmptyNestTravelHacker.com

Latest posts from

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *