A Complete Unknown vs. Better Man
Battle of the music biopics
This post briefly describes very general plot outlines for the movies A Complete Unknown and Better Man. This is done to provide context for my review and does not (in my opinion) spoil either movie. If you’d prefer to watch these movies without knowing any details, feel free to skip this post.
I wrote a novella about a 12-year-old girl’s obsession with Green Day, which you can buy HERE!
Can’t afford it right now? Email this newsletter to a friend who might like it or share it on social media to support my writing for free.
Keep in touch on Instagram, Letterboxd and Goodreads.
As a music and film nerd, I hold a special place in my heart for music biopics. For some reason, this genre tends to be denigrated, with the complaint that they often follow the same paint-by-numbers plot beats. Haters say, “We’ve seen it before!” But this, my dear haters, is simply what genre is: a set of stylistic rules that can be followed, broken or bent.
Two recent music biopics have made me think a lot about the strengths and weaknesses that come from sticking to tropes or deciding to break them. The first is James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the early 1960s. The second is Michael Gracey’s Better Man, starring… a CGI monkey as Robbie Williams. Both are Oscar-nominated: A Complete Unknown received eight nominations including Best Picture, while Better Man received one nomination for Visual Effects.
A Complete Unknown makes a smart choice with its scope, something that many music biopics fail to do. Rather than trying to shove all of Dylan’s career into two hours, it covers an early period of four years.
The film opens in 1961 when young Dylan moves to New York City. Mentored by Pete Seeger, he gets signed to a label, but his first record doesn’t sell well. During this, Dylan is torn between two women: a young artist named Sylvie Russo, based on Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo, and fellow folk singer Joan Baez.
The second half of the film takes place in 1965. Dylan is now an incredibly successful musician but neither Russo nor Baez can stand him. The central tension of this section is: Will Dylan plug in an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival instead of an acoustic? I think we all know the answer to this one.
The biggest strength of A Complete Unknown is that it contains several fantastic acting performances. However, even though Chalamet is good as Dylan, it’s the supporting cast that shines the most. Love triangle counterpoints Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro bring the most interest to the film, showcasing Dylan’s complex relationships with women. Other stand-outs include Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Scoot McNairy as a (mostly silent) Woody Guthrie.
Regardless, one of the biggest problems with the film is that it feels lackluster overall. The cinematography of the film is noticeably bland. The ending sequence at the Newport Folk Festival is overly drawn-out and contains very little tension. Overall, it’s hard to watch A Complete Unknown and not compare it to Mangold’s previous Oscar-winning music biopic, Walk the Line, which is filled to the brim with character and emotion.
Still, the most disappointing aspect of the film is that it doesn’t reveal anything new or say anything interesting about Dylan as a cultural figure. In A Complete Unknown, Dylan starts the movie as an asshole and ends as a bigger one. My apologies to Mangold, but I think we already knew that Dylan was a jerk.
It also doesn’t help that there are much better films that cover similar thematic ground. For instance, Todd Haynes’ brilliant 2007 film I’m Not There integrates the myth and aura of Dylan as a rock star by using six different actors to portray him. Even the Coens’ 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis, while not based on Dylan, is a much more revealing portrait of the pursuit of stardom in the early 1960s New York folk scene.
Better Man, on the other hand, showcases the story of British singer Robbie Williams. Williams got his start in the ‘90s boy band Take That before becoming one of the most successful singer-songwriters in the United Kingdom. While Better Man follows a formulaic plot, its approach is anything but standard. Rather than being portrayed by a human, Williams is shown as a CGI monkey, which is neither explained nor commented on by other characters.
It’s a big, bold and weird choice, and one that works way better than it should. The CGI monkey was created from a motion capture performance by English actor Jonno Davies, who also provides the voice in most scenes (Williams himself does the voiceover narration and sings many of his songs). While it seems like it would be hard to buy into the movie with this ridiculous premise, the monkey looks so good that your brain kind of just accepts it after a few minutes.
Despite its unconventional approach, Better Man goes through standard music biopic beats. The film starts with Williams’ childhood before covering his rise in Take That. Then, it showcases his struggle to achieve a solo career, as well as his battles with addiction and his thorny relationship with his father. It ends with Williams ultimately achieving commercial success and personal healing.
While I was unfamiliar with Williams before watching the movie, Better Man did a great job of explaining who he was, where he came from and, most importantly, how he felt about himself and his success. Williams’ portrayal as a monkey is a clever creative workaround for portraying a person over multiple decades. However, it also reveals something new and interesting about Williams: he felt like he was a dancing monkey in the music industry and an out-of-control animal in his personal life.
Better Man’s inventive approach to character is complimented by its captivating cinematography. The shooting shines during the musical numbers, particularly during “Rock DJ” and “Let Me Entertain You,” where the camera work takes on a swirling and energetic feel. The musical numbers also stand out for the way they synthesize key moments in Williams’ life. For instance, a stunning sequence set to “She’s The One” shows Williams’ early relationship with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton.
While other music biopics often gloss over key personal details about a musician out of fear of alienating a large audience (like Bohemian Rhapsody), Williams isn’t afraid to show his career and self-image as messy. By not sanitizing the truth of his struggles, the audience connects with Williams’ character on a human level, even though he’s portrayed as a CGI monkey. Refreshingly honest in its emotion, Better Man made my partner and I cry not once but multiple times during its runtime.
Still, I understand that it’s hard to get viewers to buy into the admittedly bonkers perspective of Better Man over something more conventional like A Complete Unknown. The latter has made over $60 million worldwide so far at the box office, which isn’t too shabby for an adult drama. The former, however, has been a box office bomb, even in Europe where Williams is much better known. Its worldwide total so far is a paltry $15 million compared to its reported $110 million budget.
As a diehard music and film fan, it breaks my heart that the better movie is not going to be as widely seen or celebrated. A Complete Unknown has a strong chance to do well at the Academy Awards, especially in the acting categories. Still, it feels bittersweet that Chalamet might become the youngest male actor to receive an Oscar for his Dylan portrayal rather than for his phenomenal performance as Paul Atreides.
All I can hope for now with Better Man is that it becomes a cult classic, Showgirls-style. If you’ve made it to the end of this newsletter, give it a watch with an open heart and mind. If you let the monkey entertain you, you might find yourself transformed.