Will Timothée take Best Actor?
Reviewing the actor’s homage to Bob Dylan and whether his busy schedule will pay off
Maybe a little harsh to start off with, but Bob Dylan is a very white-person interest to me.
A Complete Unknown predictably embodies this, but that’s not as much of a scathing insult as it seems to be.
James Mangold, director of the long-awaited biopic, has an ridiculously eclectic cinematic slate to his name. Not only is Mangold pretty well-versed in the biographical approach with the Damon-Pitt-McConaughey extravaganza that was Ford v Ferrari, but also knows how to retell a treasured story after picking up the Wolverine tale with Logan and the late instalment to the Indiana Jones series with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. With such a staggering recent portfolio, there’s been significant anticipation of A Complete Unknown and for good reason.
Starring the internet’s favourite boy Timothée Chalamet, the often-missed and under-cast Elle Fanning, multi-series TV star Monica Barbaro and the powerhouse that is Edward Norton, the film is almost perfectly poised to impact nominations across awards season.
Almost perfectly.
Look, it was an okay film.
For a biopic so steeply intertwined with history and legacy, its timeline was annoyingly hazy and vague with Chalamet’s alterations in hair, makeup and costuming being the only indication of which American era we were in. With any film over two hours, I think pacing and structure should be a priority; unfortunately for Mangold, these are sole responsibilities of a director - so I don’t think he’ll require any folded-up speeches in his tuxedo pocket this March.
Its strengths lie in aspects slightly too niche for the average viewer to appreciate, unless Dylan’s been a staple on their Spotify Wrapped for the past few years. Hearing Chalamet mimic the haphazard composition process of the greatest Dylan tracks will smack of nostalgia for our fathers, but unless there’s a undiscovered demographic of folk-loving teenagers, Chalamet’s nuanced performances runs the risk of being overlooked and underappreciated.
Said underappreciation would, however, be critically undeserved.
Chalamet has been working hard, with his press tour working even harder to undo the toll and weight of Bob Dylan’s character. It is undeniable that the challenge of not only acting but singing Dylan must be all-encompassing - the kind of thing the Oscars love. So, between the raspiness, eccentric quirks, modified posture and an album’s worth of Dylan covers, will Timmy get the gold?
It’s unlikely.
The Academy has a history of undervaluing technically impressive performances in favour of what wins the mass appeal.
This week, debates around the legitimacy of the Oscar voting procedures have been called into question yet again, as anecdotes of lazy voters, generative AI and big-budget campaigns have floated online. But if we look at the facts and not the allegations, the Oscars seem to have a personal penchant for the male-centric biopic and have generously rewarded it:
Jamie Foxx played Ray Charles in Ray, winning in 2004
Philip Seymour Hoffman played Truman Capote in Capote, winning in 2005
Forest Whitaker played Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, winning in 2006
Sean Penn played Harvey Milk in Milk, winning in 2008
Colin Firth played King George VI in The King’s Speech, winning in 2010
Daniel Day-Lewis played Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln, winning in 2012
Eddie Redmayne played Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, winning in 2014
Gary Oldman played Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, winning in 2017
Rami Malek played Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, winning in 2018
Cillian Murphy played J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, winning in 2023
Out of the past twenty ceremonies, ten of the Best Actor awards have been for biographical performances. Some of these winners were up against other biopics: 2018 also saw Dick Cheney and Vincent van Gogh performances from Christian Bale and Willem Dafoe, whilst 2014 saw Cumberbatch’s nomination for Alan Turing and 2023 had Colman Domingo’s first nomination for his portrayal of Bayard Rustin.
If the biopic theory is true and the Academy are almost always going to reward it, then Timothée should win easy-peasy; even through the real biopic winner would be Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice, but that will never happen.
The reason it won’t happen will be because of the three legacies also competing: previous Oscar winner Adrien Brody, the reborn Daniel Craig and the love of everyone’s life in Ralph Fiennes.
The other reason it won’t happen is because of the sheer brute force, whether intentional or not, of the A24 campaigns outnumbering Searchlight Pictures’ campaigns for A Real Pain (almost non-existent for the Best Actor category) and A Complete Unknown. In 2024 alone, A24 distributed nearly 25 films with at least five of those in serious contention: Sing Sing, The Brutalist, A Different Man, Queer and Heretic.
My personal prediction? Timmy won’t get it and he won’t be that sad, because he knows! So don’t look at him on awards night expecting a dramatic reaction or a forced smile, look at Club Chalamet instead.