A Complete Unknown

The Bob Dylan Biopic

It’s really hard to do a good biopic; the genre tends to be platitudinous. Biopics skim surfaces. Someone struggled and maybe faced tragedy, and then triumphed. Or someone struggled, maybe faced tragedy, soared, and then faced tragedy again. Or someone struggled, soared, maybe faced tragedy, and then found lasting love. Or: It’s the Hero’s Journey all over again. You might feel the emotions, but it’s a Hallmark card.

The most brilliant biopic I know is I’m Not There, which is about Bob Dylan. Todd Haynes uses an assortment of actors, of various ages (and genders), to play Dylan. (Ben Whishaw is amazing.) It’s witty and it’s funny; it’s playful and mischievous (like Dylan). It’s disorienting. There’s nothing platitudinous about it (like Dylan).

It doesn’t try to tell the truth about Dylan (like Dylan), but it kind of does. One reason is that the actors say some of his actual words, and they also say things that while not actually Dylan’s own, capture something true about him.

I’m Not There gets at his humor and his incredulousness. Here’s one example (from real life, not the movie): “the word ‘protest’ . . . was made up for people undergoing surgery. It’s an amusement park word . . . The word ‘message’ strikes me as having hernia-like sound. It’s just like the word ‘delicious.’ Also the word ‘marvelous.’”

Here’s another example:

Which brings us to A Complete Unknown, which I saw recently. It’s a biopic, but it’s terrific. As Joan Baez, Monica Barbaro is sharp and sensational. Wow. She’s (even) more charismatic than the young Baez (because of her intensity, I think), and she kind of steals the show (and gosh - the lady can sing).