A Complete Unknown

James Mangold knows how to deliver a musical biopic. The quality of the filmmaking is first-rate. And maybe this says more about Robert Zimmerman than it does about the film, but in dramatizing the life of the influential songwriter, one would hope to learn or reveal more about Dylan’s inner life, or motives, or hopes and dreams, or pizza preferences. But one doesn’t. There are elaborate music numbers encompassing crucial moments in music history, and these are revelatory and amazing. But you don’t get a window into the dude himself. You see more into the soul of his downtrodden girlfriend Sylvie, beautifully and emotionally rendered by Elle Fanning, than you do about Bob. Maybe that’s the point. He’s meant to stay unknown, like the title says. A terrific night at the movies, albeit emotionally superficial.