The Oscar-nominated biopic of Bob Dylan‘s life, A Complete Unknown, had a problem with “female characterisation” according to some fans.
Timothée Chalamet starred as the legendary songwriter in a film which saw him nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award. But fans have turned on the film slightly following discussions of female representation in the James Mangold-directed feature. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw some fans say the writing for female characters in the film “sucked”. The post reads: “A Complete Unknown female characterisation. I think Chalamet and [Edward] Norton carried the whole movie, but I have complaints about the female characters (they sucked). Joan Baez. Joan Baez was funny and goofy. We saw nothing of that in the movie.
“She was all serious and condescending to Bob (“*I*” have been formally musically trained blah blah…”). Suze Rotolo was an artist and activist. In the movie, all Sylvie does is look at Bob and cry. Toshi was the worst. Gets no lines the entire film. Then gets to say two words to save the day!” Fans agreed with the summary given by the user, and suggested Terri Thal’s comments on the movie ring true.
In an interview with Dylan expert Ray Padgett of Flagging Down the Double E’s, Thal says A Complete Unknwon “isn’t the history of somebody I’ve read about.” She said: “It’s portraying a soppy woman. Suze was an intelligent, young, active woman. She had a life other than her life with Bob. The movie is just totally, completely inaccurate and misleading about the kind of person she is.
“This isn’t the history of somebody that I’ve read about. This was a good friend. We remained good friends until she died. I object to what they did because they misrepresent people’s personalities, actions.”
Others disagreed with Thal’s assessment of characters in A Complete Unknown, suggesting the film has brought on “quibbling” about the accuracies of its characterisations. The user wrote: “It’s not a documentary, I don’t think people should get too hung up on these things. Those who care will look up the real people for themselves, those who don’t will just see it as another film and move on.
“I think there’s too much quibbling about the accuracy, it’s not No Direction Home, and it’s sort of in the spirit of Dylan himself who’s famously circumspect about his early life and background.”
Viewers of A Complete Unknown also suggested the film left out Dylan’s sense of humour. One wrote: “I loved the film, but it missed Bob’s humour out as well. I’d say the point of the film wasn’t to highlight Joan Baez’s strengths otherwise, but it did rather suggest that Dylan was unnecessarily dismissive of her.”
Another added: “They never seem to get Bob’s funny, mischievous side in any of the movies portraying him. Which is weird because you can see it so easily in his conversations with the press. At least in the 60s. Knowing Bob went through the script with the director maybe Bob doesn’t know how funny he is either.”
COMPLETE UNKNOWN female characterization
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Despite the concerns raised by Thiel, some viewers suggested the focus being on Dylan still left plenty of time to discuss fellow musician Joan Baez. One user wrote: “I was very happy with Monica’s performance as Joan, personally (and apparently so was Joan herself).
“I think Sylvie started out really well, actually – the ‘stare at him and cry’ happened toward the end of their relationship. I mean, they had to show the breakup in some way. And in a short (but still long compared to the average films) movie, they have to prioritize who gets lines/screentime- and considering Pete was the one close to Bob, it makes sense the focus would be on him.
“I mean, I’m the first to call out terrible portrayals of female characters- but in this case, I think A Complete Unknown did a fine job. I’ve seen it multiple times already.”
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