Every Performance In A Complete Unknown, Ranked Worst To Best

From Monica Barbaro’s scene-stealing turn as Joan Baez to Timothée Chalamet’s instantly iconic portrayal of Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown is full of great performances. Adapted from Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald and named after a lyric in “Like a Rolling Stone,” A Complete Unknown chronicles the beginning of Dylan’s career as he arrives in New York City in 1961. He quickly becomes a wunderkind on the folk music scene, but faces plenty of tension from his peers, his audience, and his industry when he wants to evolve as an artist beyond the time-tested folk traditions.

Led by Chalamet’s Dylan, A Complete Unknown’s cast fully embody their roles and immerse the audience in this specific chapter of music history. This cast went above and beyond the usual requirements of musical biopics; A Complete Unknown’s actors performed all the music in-camera, so it has the lively atmosphere of a concert film, which sets it apart from other entries in this well-worn genre. Everyone in A Complete Unknown gives a fantastic performance, from Elle Fanning as Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie Russo to Dan Fogler as the comic-relief character Albert Grossman, but which one is the very best?

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8

Norbert Leo Butz As Alan Lomax

Is Only In The Movie To Represent The Old Guard Of The Folk Genre

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Arguably the worst performance in A Complete Unknown is Norbert Leo Butz’s portrayal of Alan Lomax. It’s not a bad performance by any means; it’s just more one-note than the film’s other performances, and that can partly be blamed on the writing. Lomax’s role in this movie is to represent the stuffy old guard of the folk genre.

He wants to uphold the traditions and prevent Dylan’s artistic evolution. Butz does a great job of playing that stuffiness and making Lomax a consistent source of irritation, but Lomax is there more as a philosophy than a character.

7

Dan Fogler As Albert Grossman

The Film’s Comic Relief

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Dan Fogler plays Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman. Much like Butz, Fogler is in the movie to serve a specific purpose. Where Lomax represents an idea, Grossman is there to provide comic relief. Whether he’s furious at Dylan for rejecting his own crowd or waking up next to him with a bad hangover, Fogler never fails to get a laugh whenever he appears in A Complete Unknown. There’s not quite as much depth in Fogler’s performance as that of his co-stars — he’s a pretty straightforward take on the music manager archetype — but he’s a hilarious delight whenever he’s on-screen.

6

Scoot McNairy As Woody Guthrie

A Great Performance Using The Subtleties Of Body Language

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When he first arrives in New York, Dylan goes straight to the hospital to meet his hero, Woody Guthrie, who’s suffering from Huntington’s disease. Since Guthrie is unable to speak, Scoot McNairy doesn’t have much to do in the role, but if anything, that presented the greatest acting challenge of the film.

Based on the subtleties of McNairy’s body language, it’s always clear what Guthrie is thinking and feeling.

McNairy had to capture the apathy that came with Guthrie’s illness, but he also had to show him being moved by this prodigious young talent singing a personal tribute to him. Based on the subtleties of McNairy’s body language, it’s always clear what Guthrie is thinking and feeling.

5

Elle Fanning As Sylvie Russo

She Shows Unspoken Emotions

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Elle Fanning appears heavily in the first half of A Complete Unknown and sporadically in the second half as Sylvie Russo, based on Dylan’s real-life girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo. Fanning shares great on-screen chemistry with Chalamet, not only when Dylan and Sylvie are first falling in love, but also after their relationship falls apart and they still have feelings for each other. It’s not easy to convey a blend of love and contempt — a strong romantic attachment complicated by the painful memories of a long history of indiscretions — but Fanning nails it.

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Fanning’s performance is a masterclass in non-verbal communication. At the film’s climax, when Dylan invites Sylvie to the Newport Folk Festival, she reluctantly goes with him. But when she sees the romantic tension between Dylan and Baez, she realizes she can’t go through it again and abruptly leaves the show. The only way for the audience to know how Sylvie is feeling is to watch Fanning’s acting, and the unspoken emotions are clear as day.

4

Boyd Holbrook As Johnny Cash

He Leaves An Unforgettable Impression

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Boyd Holbrook’s Johnny Cash only appears in a few scenes in A Complete Unknown, but he leaves an unforgettable impression. The last portrayal of Cash that Mangold directed — Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Walk the Line — was a lot more brooding and intense. Holbrook has a more comedic take on the role, and it’s a lot more entertaining.

Cash has a lot of great one-liners and drunken mishaps, especially toward the end of A Complete Unknown, and Holbrook’s comedic timing is spot-on. He can get an uproarious laugh with something as simple as balancing a Coke bottle on a car.

3

Edward Norton As Pete Seeger

An Oscar-Nominated Performance

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Edward Norton was one of three A Complete Unknown cast members to score an Oscar nomination. He earned a Best Supporting Actor nod for his portrayal of Pete Seeger, a fellow folk musician and close friend of Guthrie’s. Seeger has an interesting arc in Dylan’s early career. Initially, Dylan looks up to Seeger as a father figure. He gave Dylan a place to stay and arranged his first live shows in New York; Dylan owes him everything. But as the film goes on and Dylan’s career takes off, his relationship with Seeger sours.

Seeger comes to represent the old-hat folk traditions that Dylan wants to break away from. Norton leans into that dynamic hilariously. Every time Dylan sees Seeger coming, he sighs, and Norton’s portrayal of Seeger maintains the same aw-shucks Mr. Rogers geniality.

2

Monica Barbaro As Joan Baez

A Magnetic Screen Presence

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A Complete Unknown dedicates a lot of screen time to Dylan’s on-and-off relationship with Joan Baez. Around the same time Dylan was coming up on the folk scene, Baez was being equally praised as a wunderkind. Monica Barbaro was similarly Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Baez, and it’s easy to see why. Barbaro’s Baez is a magnetic screen presence, perfectly replicating both her soprano singing voice and her spirited countercultural attitude.

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Baez could’ve existed in this movie as an accessory to Dylan, but Barbaro ensures she has plenty of agency of her own. Throughout the film, Baez is one of the only characters who’s willing to call Dylan out. After her scene-stealing turn in A Complete Unknown, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Mangold to make a Baez biopic to complete his unofficial trilogy.

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Timothée Chalamet As Bob Dylan

A Well-Rounded, Three-Dimensional Portrait Of Dylan

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Biopics pretty much exist as a showcase for their lead actor, so it’s no surprise that the performance that stands out the most in A Complete Unknown is Chalamet’s central portrayal of Dylan. Chalamet gets everything right in his performance as Dylan; he captures the mystery surrounding the Dylan persona, the pluckiness of an underdog singer-songwriter who changed the face of American music, and the indescribable aura that makes Dylan such a fascinating character. Both his singing voice and his speaking voice are spot-on. It goes beyond a mere impression; it’s indistinguishable from the real thing.

Chalamet’s turn in A Complete Unknown will surely go down in history as one of the finest performances ever given in a biopic.

Where most biopics deify their subjects, Chalamet offers a well-rounded, three-dimensional portrait of Dylan. He doesn’t shy away from Dylan’s less likable traits, like his arrogance in the face of lesser musical talents, his unfaithfulness as a romantic partner, and his contempt for anyone who wants to stunt his artistic growth, whether they’re fans who want him to play the hits or Newport organizers who want to ban him from using an electric guitar. Chalamet’s turn in A Complete Unknown will surely go down in history as one of the finest performances ever given in a biopic.

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A Complete Unknown

Biography

Drama

Music

6/10

165

9.2/10

Release Date

December 25, 2024

Runtime

140 minutes

Director

James Mangold

Writers

Jay Cocks, James Mangold

Cast

See All

• 

  Timothée Chalamet

  Bob Dylan

• 

  Edward Norton

  Pete Seeger

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Category: Entertainment