Why people are so up in arms about the Bob Dylan biopic
Does the name Dewey Cox ring a bell? If not, it should. Dewey Cox is the principal character in 2007’s Walk Hard, a spoof of the biopic genre that became something of a benchmark for what not to do with these kinds of movies. Walk Hard should have had a lasting effect on how Hollywood bigwigs bring the lives of real people to the big screen. Unfortunately, the release of the newest trailer for A Complete Unknown suggests that didn’t happen.
There’s been buzz around A Complete Unknown for a while — ever since Chalamet took to the streets of New York in Bob Dylan garbs back in March, the internet has been ablaze with equal parts excitement and concern for the project. Would director James Mangold (Logan; Ford v Ferrari) be presenting a fresh take on the genre? Or would he succumb to the usual trappings of biopics? That of being incredibly formulaic, acting that veers on comedic impressions, and repeated (rather crude) references to why whatever era the movie is spotlighting was particularly “significant” or “important” — Walk Hard parodied that last one perfectly.
According to the online sphere, A Complete Unknown might have gone down the latter route, and in doing so it followed suit of other cringe-inducing biopics of late — special shoutout to Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, which inexplicably took home the Oscar for “Best Film Editing” in 2019. When the second trailer for the flick (also produced by Chalamet) dropped on Tuesday, punters on X couldn’t stop themselves from noting the similarities to Walk Hard. “I’ll never get over the fact that WALK HARD didn’t perma-kill the music biopic. Baz Luhrman put a literal Dewey Cox scene in ELVIS,” said one user. “mangold is brave for seeing walk hard and still deciding to make this 17 years later. thats pure dedication to the art of making boring movies,” said another. What got people most up in arms was actor Boyd Holbrook’s take on Johnny Cash. “I was pretty neutral about ‘A Complete Unknown’ until Johnny Cash showed up in the latest trailer like a Marvel cameo,” said one user. Another simply said this: “Bro looks so corny”.
Where do we go from here? We’re not sure. If the success of Elvis and Bohemian Rhapsody is anything to go from, A Complete Unknown will be a megahit. We’re also not sure what the alternative to Dewey Cox-esque biopics is. One in which the lead is played by a CGI monkey, a-la Better Man, in which Take That singer Robbie Williams gets that exact treatment? God, it’s bleak out here.
