A Complete Unknown
Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 59 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
iChristina NewlandJan 17, 2025
This is not some deification story, even though it often regards Dylan’s capacity for musical storytelling with something akin to worship. Mangold steers the ship into harbour competently, even if I have some niggling questions about why the Dylan myth requires yet another movie. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 16, 2025
Adaptations of Ivanhoe have imagined the past less romantically. Read full review
60
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 21, 2024
What may have begun as a descent into the personal depths of an enigmatic genius ends up as one more cog in the Bob Dylan myth machine. Read full review
60
Time OutIan FreerDec 11, 2024
The film thrives on two performances: Barbaro is terrific as Baez, hypnotic on stage and fiercely charismatic off. And Chalamet inhabits Dylan without ever feeling like a Stars In Your Eyes contestant. From the voice to the charm to the earthiness to the self-centredness (‘You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,’ Baez tells him), Chalamet nails it all. It’s a shame Mangold’s safe flick doesn’t ask just that little bit more of him. Read full review
60
BBCCaryn JamesDec 10, 2024
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. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentDec 10, 2024
Anyone looking for a revelatory portrait of an iconic artist might be a smidge disappointed. But as conventional as it is, this is still a strikingly well-made musical drama with pitch-perfect performances. Don’t criticise, as Dylan once sang, what you can’t understand.  Read full review
60
The Daily BeastNick SchagerDec 10, 2024
Goes heavy on convincing musical performances to make up for the fact that it has nothing astute to say about its subject—in large part because it doesn’t seem to really know him. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyDec 10, 2024
Despite the drip-fed reminders of contemporary history (the Cuban Missile Crisis! the Kennedy assassination! Weren’t the Sixties wild, man!), A Complete Unknown struggles to fully engage with Dylan’s relationship to that intersection between politics and music. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiDec 10, 2024
I walked away from the film feeling distant from Bob Dylan. That seems to be by design but it’s no less frustrating from a storytelling point of view. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 10, 2024
Like “I’m Not There” before it, “A Complete Unknown” would rather celebrate Dylan’s mystery than attempt to explain it (each of their titles emphasizes his elusiveness as a defining factor), but where Haynes’ solution was to make Dylan infinite, Mangold’s is to make him as small as possible. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 30, 2025
As someone with only a basic knowledge of Bob Dylan, I can’t say I came away from A Complete Unknown with much more of an understanding of the man, his music, or his cultural significance. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 2, 2025
Chalamet embodies Dylan in a quite literal sense; he’s clearly studied the tape and does a more than passable mimicry of Dylan’s voice and performing style. Problem is, it’s an intentionally opaque characterization, in a film overcrammed with musical performances – onstage, in the studio, on the bed noodling on a new song – which basically means half the movie is like watching pretty good karaoke. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 19, 2024
What’s lost is the way a colossal spirit such as Dylan confronts everyday challenges with a heightened sense of style and daring. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Saffron MaeveDec 19, 2024
Despite the arid direction, Chalamet’s Dylan – described in the film as “a cross between a choir boy and a beatnik” – comes from the heart. Read full review
50
The Film StageRyan SwenDec 10, 2024
Whatever the tepidly constructed dramatic scenes and shallow character motivations, A Complete Unknown does provide the opportunity to hear a number of the greatest songs of the 20th century performed loud and, yes, competently. Read full review
45
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesDec 30, 2024
So, just know that A Complete Unknown comes off as really boring throughout. None of this will stop Chalamet from shining out with the ultimate movie Dylan. It is a tousled hair masterwork of a performance, completely adapting the essence of Dylan to a folk music Batman. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerDec 25, 2024
In the end, A Complete Unknown neither meaningfully conveys Dylan’s mythology nor exposes him as human. There’s more fulfillment to be gained from listening to “The Very Best of Bob Dylan.” Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherDec 10, 2024
Still, Norton’s great. It should’ve really been the Pete Seeger story. Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsDec 10, 2024
It’s a hot-waxed shrine to its subject, an official version which drips with hollow trivia and is happy to namecheck that thing it knows you like rather than reveal something that you didn’t. Read full review
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