A Complete Unknown - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

A Complete Unknown begins in 1961, as Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in New York City to visit his idol, Woody Guthrie, who is hospitalized, dying of Huntington’s disease. The two get along, despite Guthrie’s inability to speak any longer, and communicate through quick, written messages and through music. Dylan also befriends Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who helps him with his musical career early on, and introduces him to some venues, where he meets other musicians, and so on, and so on. Dylan also meets several women, including Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning essentially playing the real-life Suze Rotolo) and the famous singer-songwriter Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and is serially unfaithful to both of them.

The story begins predictably enough and follows a lot of the same beats we know from other musical biopics, but then it shifts its focus, wisely, to focus in on a singular story in Dylan’s life. This isn’t a story about his life; this is but a chapter in it. It’s a story about growing fame, disillusionment, change, and evolution. It’s about anger, it’s about bitterness, it’s about petty grievances that last a lifetime because of clashing egos.

A Complete Unknown climaxes with the infamous “Dylan going electric” controversy. I’ve heard the story told and retold so many times, from so many sources, and every source claims to have the real dirt, to know what really happened. In some stories, the creative team behind the 1965 Newport Folk Festival was caught off guard by a cranky, egotistical Bob Dylan, who refused to perform music in line with their message and acted like a spoiled brat when he didn’t get the reaction he wanted. Others tell it that Dylan simply wanted to play the music that spoke to his heart and was bullied relentlessly by closed-minded people who literally wanted to cut his cord with an axe.

The way A Complete Unknown tells it is probably closer to the truth, which is that everyone involved was kind of an asshole. Heads butted. Creative ethos clashed. No one wanted to budge. And what happened fractured a lot of friendships. The film doesn’t shy away from portraying Dylan in a less-than-flattering light, sometimes, which I enjoyed. So many biopics are guilty of becoming sycophantic products that bestow legendary status on their subjects, but what emerges here is much more interesting.

Mangold’s direction is as good as ever, and the leads are all quite good. Edward Norton gives a wonderful, nuanced performance as Seeger. But the star of the show, of course, is Chalamet, who somehow manages to play someone as imitable as Bob Dylan without succumbing to parody. He does the voice, that iconic voice, without it devolving into some SNL skit. It’s a tough act, but he nails it. He plays Dylan with a lot of different layers and makes him human.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed A Complete Unknown. I don’t think it reinvents the wheel, but it does have a certain self-awareness that allows it to subvert the common tropes we’ve come to expect in films like this. It embraces some, skirts others, and has a confidence to its narrative that feels very, well, rock ‘n roll.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
A Complete Unknown thumbs a ride and arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray in a two-disc release. A 4K Blu-ray and a regular, 1080p HD Blu-ray are both housed in a standard case, which also contains a slip that can be used for digital redemption on services like Fandango At Home.

A Complete Unknown is presented in 4K UHD, graded in Dolby Vision HDR. Phedon Papamichael’s cinematography gives the narrative a deceptively simple aesthetic. The color palette is subdued, bordering on neutral, with the foggy grays of early 1960s New York, punctuated and accented with a warming glow of a lamp or a bright, red curtain, adding a little pop to the shot. The HDR grading is most pronounced in these shots, bathed in a sea of gray, with a color allowed to pop for variance, allowing for a complex spectrum of realization. Although A Complete Unknown was shot digitally, I had to double check, because it really does have a terrific filmic look, replete with “film grain”—how this was achieved, I have no idea, whether there’s a process to capture it organically, or if it’s added in post. In either case, the look was close enough that it really does capture a feel for the era it’s set in.

Listeners have two English audio options: Dolby Atmos as its surround option, and a stereo option encoded in DTS HD-MA. Both options are leveled well, with their numerous musical performances allowed to shine, while dialogue takes precedence in the story’s more talky scenes. The Dolby Atmos option is a pretty front-heavy, although there are ambient effects like a crowd cheering that erupts from the rear speakers. Since most of the music is performed in the movie, as opposed to a needle drop or a musical score, it largely takes place on the front of the soundstage. I didn’t have a problem with this. Logically, it was a decision that made sense. In imagining a 3D soundscape, it made the most sense. But also utilizing that 3D soundscape, other effects had pinpoint precision. A voice calling offscreen, or someone knocking on a door, would almost sound as if they were occurring beyond my speakers. It was really a pretty neat design. Through it all, the audio is crystal clear and packs a punch when it needs to.

There are just two features to be found here: A making-of featurette (split into four parts for the story, Chalamet’s portrayal of Bob Dylan, the supporting cast, and the film’s design), plus an audio commentary track.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary – Director James Mangold

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary – Director James Mangold
• The Making of A Complete Unknown (HD 23:50)

A Complete Unknown is significantly better than it has any reason to be, and part of that is because of the craft that’s gone into the filmmaking, like James Mangold’s direction and Chalamet’s performance. Part of it, too, is due to the film’s decision to focus on a specific story in Dylan’s life, instead of a broad portrayal that encompasses an entire lifetime. Unlike a lot of films of its type, it’s not a glamorous fluff piece. It’s not afraid to portray its subject as anything other than human. A Complete Unknown is a surprisingly good musical biopic that looks and sounds great. It’s Highly Recommended.