If it wasn’t clear before, I think we can officially name Timothée Chalamet as the best movie star of his generation.

“A Complete Unknown” follows the early career of folk singer Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), from his humble beginnings at open mics leading up to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, and Scoot McNairy also star while James Mangold directs and co-writes.

I like James Mangold enough as a director. I’m a big fan of 2019’s “Ford v Ferrari” and have also always liked his “3:10 to Yuma” remake, and even his middling films like “The Wolverine” or last year’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have their moments. He is perhaps most famous for “Walk the Line,” a biopic about Johnny Cash, so in a way it makes sense why he was tapped to direct another film about a famed 60s musician. “Complete Unknown” strums many familiar beats as the music biopics that have come before, but thanks to a grouping of solid performances, song sequences, and an eye for period detail, it is able to rise above the noise and deliver an entertaining viewing experience.

I’m not a Bob Dylan guy. I would even go as far as to say the man’s songs are overrated and his career overappreciated. I saw him perform in 2016, and after mumbling through just a few tunes, he took a break and was met with boos from the audience. So I had no extra excitement or incentive going into “Complete Unknown,” but it was refreshing to see the film not shy away from the fact that its central character is, and seems to have always been, a jerk. As is many times the case with biographical films, the truth can be sanitized or key members of the story made out to look better than they actually were (here’s looking at you, “Bohemian Rhapsody“), but “Complete Unknown” not only shows Dylan being a jerk to his girlfriends and insulting audience members but also kind of makes fun of folk music. It’s very admirable of Mangold and his team to not try and paint Dylan as some misunderstood genius and let characters call him out for what he’s really always been.

As Dylan, Timothée Chalamet looks the part with long black hair and Ray-Ban sunglasses, mumbling his way from scene to scene. He spent six years learning how to play guitar and sing like Dylan (he performed all the songs live for the film), and the dedication appears on-screen. I don’t think it’s a groundbreaking performance or one of the best depictions of a musician ever put to film, but it does confirm Chalamet is a force to be reckoned with across all genres, whether it is an epic blockbuster (“Dune”), children’s musical (“Wonka”), or adult drama (“Call Me by Your Name”). It’s been great to see his career blossom over the past decade from small supporting roles in “Interstellar” and “Love the Coopers” to leading two Oscar films in one year, and I really look forward to seeing what he chooses to do next.

I’ve always been an Edward Norton fan. I think we don’t give him enough credit for being one of the best talents of his generation, and he’s quietly warm and effective here playing Pete Seeger, one of Dylan’s earliest supporters. A Mister Rogers-type character, Norton is seemingly always trying to let cool heads prevail, then, as the film goes on, becomes more disillusioned with Dylan as his career transitions from acoustic folk to electric, and you as an audience member can feel the pain behind Norton’s eyes watching he and his adoptive son grow apart. Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro are both also sweet yet heartbreaking as Dylan’s love interests.

Like I said, I’m not the biggest Dylan fan, but there’s no denying some of his songs are all-time greats (“Mr. Tambourine Man” is one of my favorites). When he breaks out “The Times They Are A-Changin’” on stage, you can feel the energy change, and it speaks to the cultural shift that was occurring in the early 60s. When he riffs a known beat or lyric, some fans will feel the urge to point at the screen.

The film runs 141 minutes, and like many movies nowadays, it certainly didn’t need to be that long. While it’s never boring, the middle does get a little repetitive, rinsing and repeating Dylan playing around with a new song, being a jerk to Fanning, Barbaro, and/or fans, and checking in on Norton, all before we get to the famed 1965 Newport incident, which itself feels like a climax, but leading up to it doesn’t feel like we’ve been building toward some sort of make-or-break moment.

I’m pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed “A Complete Unknown,” considering how little I care about its central character or even the genre of music he’s known for. I think that speaks to just how much star power Timothée Chalamet has and how the supporting cast around him rises to the occasion. I’m sure mileage will vary for people’s willingness to forgive genre tropes, but in a world of forgotten biopics (Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston have both had come-and-gone ones since the pandemic) or comically cliché ones (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), it’s nice to have one that didn’t feel simply like reading a Wikipedia article and checking boxes.

Critics Rating: 8/10