Music biographies are a tired film genre. Stories about the tiredness of the genre are also kind of tired. But before I dive into my perspective, some background information is needed A complete unknownthe film by author and director James Mangold about the legendary Bob Dylan. My film critic brothers and I thought about the 2007 film Go Hard: The Dewey Cox Story probably putting the final nail in the musical biopic’s coffin. It was a satirical skewering of all things rags to riches (and drugs to rehab) that find their way into these films. It made fun of the entire genre so thoroughly that it was hard to imagine any production company would find the money to make another one.

But it is an animal that cannot be killed. Since this film lampooned the genre over seventeen years ago, we’ve had the late, great Chadwick Boseman as James Brown Get up (2014), Paul Dano and John Cusack as young and older Brian Wilson in Love and mercy (2015), Rami Malek takes home an Oscar as Freddie Mercury Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocket Man (2019) and Austin Butler received an Oscar nomination for his role as Elvis in the 2022 Baz Luhrman film of the same name.

With the publication of A complete unknowna biopic set during four tumultuous formative years in the career of shapeshifter Bob Dylan, moviegoers can decide which is harder to kill: the musical biopic or a Nosferatu? The good news for movie lovers hiding from their families in a dark theater during the holidays is that both films are entertaining examples of their genre. (I will have more to say Nosferatu later.)

James Mangold wisely avoids birth to death, soup to nuts and tells the life story of Bob Dylan. A complete unknown begins in 1961 with a baby-faced Dylan hitchhiking to New York with a guitar and some composition books full of lyrics. It ends immediately after Dylan’s “scandalous” performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when the taciturn young songwriter caused a riot of sorts by unleashing electric guitars and drums at a venue known as the only great acoustic dud.

During this time he befriends hospitalized Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) and folk legend Pete Seeger (an appropriately gentle and serious Edward Norton). He falls in love with his first love Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) and then becomes enchanted by the art and beauty of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Along the way, he manages to write some of the greatest folk songs in history (The times in which they change And Blowing in the windamong other things) and quickly catapulted himself into musical stardom.

Although this sounds like a greatest hits collection of musical biography storylines, A complete unknown Dylan’s biography is not about getting from point A to point B to point C. Rather, it is an examination of Bob Dylan as a force for change. Chalamet uses the enigmatic silence Dylan is known for to obscure the artist’s motivations. The world has wondered for decades what drives the singer-songwriter, and this film wisely avoids offering possible explanations. Dylan is simply a force of nature, moving in the impenetrable currents of his personal muse.

Dylan (in real life and in the film) doesn’t care about fame for its own sake. Like any songwriter, he longs for a large audience to hear what he has to say. But he avoids the flashy dinner parties and corporate events that help keep artists at the top. The air up there has always disagreed with Dylan’s reputation for being arrogant and “difficult.” When his manager Albert Grossman asks him to play his folk hits to the audience at his 1965 concert, Dylan bristles at the idea of ​​looking back or bowing to the audience’s expectations to decide what to play. (I’ve seen Dylan six or seven times since 1989 and never heard anything The times in which they change or Blowing in the wind in concert.)

When Pete Seeger accuses Bob of turning away from folk music and its politically charged messages, Dylan replies, “Maybe I just want to play with a band.” Such moments offer the most insight. Maybe there’s no overarching agenda with Bob Dylan. He simply has the power to do whatever he wants, and that’s what he does. He is the only songwriter to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He refused to attend the ceremony.

In true Dylan fashion, he had little or nothing to do with the making of the film. He recently tweeted that the film would be released this month and said: “Timmy is a brilliant actor, so I’m sure he’ll be just as believable as me.” Or a younger me. Or any other me.” And that is the key to the success of this film. It captures the essence of Dylan without trying to explain him. It’s a believable version of him. His inscrutability is part of the overall package.