Review Roundup: Timothée Chalamet is Bob Dylan in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN Musical Biopic

Timothée Chalamet plays the iconic musician Bob Dylan in James Mangold's new biopic A Complete Unknown.

Set against the backdrop of the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, the film follows an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota who arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.  As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.

The cast includes Timothee Chalamet (who performed the songs live), Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro, Dan Fogler, Scoot McNair, and Broadway's Norbert Leo Butz.

Ahead of the film's December 25 release in theaters, check out what critics thought of the film below! 

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Owen Gleiberman, Variety: "'A Complete Unknown' is a drama of scruffy naturalism, with a plot that doesn’t so much unfold as lope right along with its legendary, curly-haired, sunglass-wearing coffee-house troubadour hero. Yet the feel — the effect — is that of a musical. You’d assume that might be true of any classic rock biopic, but in this case the film, with its beautifully haphazard song-cycle structure, truly is about Dylan and his music, and how the music changed everything.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: "Whatever script flaws there are in terms of structure, plot momentum and an opaque central character, 'A Complete Unknown' offers rewards in its lived-in performances and in the exhilarating music sequences that propel it forward. For many audiences with an affection for Dylan’s music and the era in general, that will be enough."

Pete Hammond, Deadline: "Technically the film is first-rate, with excellent production design from Francois Audouy, costume design by Arianne Phillips, and Phedon Papamichael’s sharp cinematography all beautifully capturing this early 60s era of New York. The music of course is worth the price of admission, but in Mangold’s hands fortunately there is so much more to add, thus making Bob Dylan a little less than complete unknown by the time the credits roll."

Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert: "Mangold’s approach demands a great deal of Mr. Chalamet, and he nails it. Not only does he sound like Dylan when he’s singing, he somehow captures the newness of these moments. When he plays “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for the first time in a great scene, it’s a song that a lot of people in the movie audience know by heart. Still, Chalamet and the production somehow convey the immediacy of that moment at Newport when these people are hearing a masterpiece for the first time. It gives the film an electricity that biopics almost always lack, feeling urgent instead of merely like a jukebox that’s been played a hundred times."

Caryn James: BBC: "Chalamet gives Dylan a defiant look in his eyes and through these later scenes creates a visceral sense of his restlessness, of how important it is for him to break free of the public assumptions about him, both musically and as the spokesman of a generation. You can finally feel an energy that can't be restrained and that should have been in the film all along."

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: "Interestingly the story, despite the classic music-biopic tropes that Mangold did so much to popularise, does not conform to the classic rise-fall-learning-experience-comeback format. It’s all rise, but troubled and unclear. You might not buy Chalamet’s Dylan at first; I didn’t, until that Guthrie bedside scene. There is amazing bravado in this performance."

Siddhant Adlakha, IGN: "Ford v Ferrari's James Mangold takes his hands off the steering wheel for A Complete Unknown, resulting in a Bob Dylan biopic that takes unpredictable turns. Rather than connecting the dots between how the world influenced him (and how he influenced it in turn), the film frames his enormous musical sea changes as personal drama for his peers. It’s formally straightforward, but its focus on the characters in Dylan’s life – rather than the musician himself, played by Timothée Chalamet – turn him into an enigma, for better or worse."

William Bibbiani, TheWrap: "If one new person becomes an impassioned Bob Dylan fan, this movie will have done its job. If two people do, I’ll be surprised. It’s a film that caters more to the folks who were already there, who remember the days and who don’t need any more information than they already have in their hippocampi. Everyone else will be treated to a superficial, corny overview, elevated by Chalamet’s commanding performance and an impeccable period recreation, but undone by the decision to please the film’s semi-fictional audience more than its real one."

David Ehrlich, IndieWire: “'A Complete Unknown' presents one of the most forcefully idiosyncratic figures of our lifetimes as a creature so inextricable from the culture he shaped that it all but deprives him of any agency of his own, a feeling exemplified by the film’s unwillingness to engage with its political context (an especially bizarre choice for a movie that’s bookended with appearances by Woody Guthrie)."

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