James Mangold Upends the Music Biopic in 'A Complete Unknown' With This Choice

At this point, the term "music biopic" is a pejorative in certain corners of the film community. The genre, hilariously ridiculed in the cult classic parody film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, is synonymous with exhausting tropes and artistic banality. However, as a vessel to trigger nostalgia for older generations and increase streaming numbers among younger generations, it has proven to be a bankable formula, with Bohemian Rhapsody and Bob Marley: One Love chugging along at the box office despite mixed critical reception. If there was one groundbreaking, iconoclastic artist who didn't need the music biopic treatment, it was Bob Dylan. Director James Mangold, responsible for cementing the archetypal cinematic biography in Walk the Line, averted disaster by not falling for the tropes in A Complete Unknown, the rare, refreshing music biopic that shifts attention away from its subject and instead focuses on the vibrant community of the music scene.