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A Complete Unknown: An Entertaining, but Flat Film.

I will preface this by saying that I have always been a casual fan of Bob Dylan. I’ve never owned any of his albums, but I likewise never change the radio station when one of his songs comes on, and I never skip a song of his if it comes up on my Spotify playlist. There are a few songs he’s written that could find their way into my personal top 50 favorite songs, like Tangled Up in Blue, The Times They Are a-Changing, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, and Blowing in the Wind. He’s one of the greatest songwriters in the history of pop and folk music, so it would be impossible to name all the great songs he’s responsible for and keep this blog to a reasonable length.

I was looking forward to seeing A Complete Unknown because it was directed by James Mangold, who also directed Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic, which was one of my favorite films of 2005. I was a fan of Walk the Line because it took a deep dive into not only Cash’s music but the trauma he experienced that led to drug and alcohol abuse that nearly destroyed him. It also was a poignant love story about his relationship with June Carter. It was a deep film with conflict, drama, and an emotionally satisfying ending.

There was very little of any of that in A Complete Unknown. Drugs and alcohol didn’t play a huge role in defining Dylan’s career, although he claims to have been addicted to heroin for a brief time in the 60s. He did, however, have a tumultuous relationship with Joan Baez that inspired her to write the powerful song Diamonds and Rust after their breakup. In fact, the first half of the film felt like an extended concert movie. It was entertaining. There was a lot of great music. But there wasn’t a ton of drama or great storytelling.

That changed about halfway through the movie.

One thing that started to create drama in the first half of the second act was when Dylan started to achieve fame that he wasn’t prepared for. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Timothèe Chalamet here, who delivers an amazing performance as Bob Dylan. He nails Dylan’s soft-spoken, almost slurry syntax, as well as his pitchy singing style. He also nailed Dylan’s contrarian attitude as he devised to break cultural norms of everything from politics to how people view folk music. He was especially effective in showing the internal struggle Dylan had in coming to grips with his fame and how it was changing his world in ways that weren’t always for the better.

A Complete Unknown became an actual movie about halfway through. The love triangle between Dylan, Baez (Monica Barbaro), and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) comes to a head, but not in the emotionally satisfying way that it should have because Mangold didn’t take the time needed in the first half of the movie like he did in the first half of Walk the Line.

What makes the second half of the film the most dramatic is Dylan’s embracing of electric guitar when his fans, especially folk fan,s believe the acoustic guitar is the only way to play music. He wants to play new electric songs at the upcoming Newport Folk Festival, but the concert organizers and his mentor, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) pressure him to only play on the acoustic. This is the only real drama in the story, and it is paper thin.

Mangold also wrote the screenplay along with James Cocks, and it’s based on the book Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald. I have not read the book, but the title implies it’s about Dylan, already one of the great folk singers of his time, embracing the electric guitar, which would have been seen by his contemporaries as the most unholy of acts possible. I hate to second guess a great filmmaker like Mangold, but I can’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t have been a much more dramatic film if he had focused the script on that idea and coincided it with his relationship with Joan Baez. I feel like Mangold’s mistake in this film was biting off more than he could chew. In trying to show as much as possible of Dylan’s life leading up to him going electric, he couldn’t dive deeply enough into any of it, leaving us with a broad but flat story that was begging for depth.

That said, it’s an entertaining film. Fans of Bob Dylan will likely love this film, as there is a whole lotta music in it. The story essentially serves as a vehicle to get us from one musical number to another. I will say that my favorite moment in the film was when he first sang The Times They Are a-Changing at the Newport Folk Festival. The crowd slowly gets into it as he sings it, and that moment catapults him to superstardom in the film.

I enjoyed A Complete Unknown, but it, unfortunately, left some plays on the field due to the surface-level nature of the storytelling. It had some great moments, and I would certainly watch it again. But it’s a tick below the best films of this year. It will get some Oscar recognition in the form of nominations, but it’s not likely to take home many, if any, awards. It’s one of those films that could have and probably should have been better. But it’s worth seeing as it is.

2025 Golden Globes Recap

It’s safe to say that the Golden Globes are not what they used to be. For many years, the Golden Globes were the antithesis of the Oscars. Where the Oscars were stodgy and proper, the Golden Globes always had an edge to them. People still got dressed up, but at the Oscars, everyone stays in their seat, and there is a fair amount of pageantry to the proceedings. At the Golden Globes, people get up and mingle, and the host is often irreverent.

Say what you want about the Hollywood Foreign Press and the issues they’ve had over the past few years that led to their ultimate demise. They used to put on a great awards show.

Nikki Glaser was terrific as the show’s host and MC. She was funny and just irreverent enough to make us remember the good old days. But then there was some weird stuff going on outside of Glaser’s excellent performance.

The camera angles on presenters offered a kind of fish-eye view that was distracting and disconcerting. The writing for the presenters was also subpar. Many of the jokes fell flat to the point of being uncomfortable. The overall show lacked the entertainment value of its HFP predecessors.

Then there were the awards.

Just focusing on the awards for cinema, there were some headscratchers. Admittedly, I still need to see The Brutalist. By all accounts, it’s fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing it. So far, my favorite film of the year is Conclave, and while I was glad to see it win Best Screenplay, I felt like it should have at least won Best Score, if not Best Motion Picture Drama.

But the real snub of the night went to Wicked. I don’t know who votes for these things anymore, but whoever voted for Emilia Perez over Wicked should be ashamed of themselves. If ever there was a prototypical movie that was made to win Best Musical or Comedy, it was Wicked. And I don’t want to hear about how they’re probably waiting for Wicked II to come out and award it then so it’s like an achievement for both. That’s nonsense. Wicked was the best musical and the best comedy to come out this year, and it deserved to win that award.

Nor do I want to hear about how it won for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. They might as well name that award Best Blockbuster and treat it like the consolation prize that it is. Wicked deserved way better than that.

There were plenty of other head-scratching moves like Flow winning Best Animated Feature over Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. It used to be that the Golden Globes kicked off awards season as a preview of what was to come. If this is what we’re going to see for the rest of the awards season, it will be a strange year indeed.

Act II to Act III Transition

I have been reading a lot of scripts lately where the writer struggles with the transition between Act II and Act III. I can relate, because when I first started writing, I had no idea how to handle that transition. The transition between Act I and Act II is easy. It’s where the adventure begins, and it is the moment the hero commits to the adventure and sets out to accomplish whatever outer goal has been set up.

But the transition from Act II to Act III is trickier.

The adventure is already happening. The hero hasn’t yet won the prize. What could possibly happen to make the story change directions again? I got my answer in a screenwriting class at USC when the instructor referred to it as the moment the hero loses everything. More commonly known as the “all-is-lost” moment, it’s the point in the screenplay where it looks like the hero has failed. What’s more, the hero has failed because she was unable to overcome whatever inner weakness has been blocking her. All protagonists must have this trait, and it must conflict with their ability to get what they want. That inability to overcome their inner weakness hits hardest at the Act II-Act III transition, causing the protagonist to appear to lose everything. Act III then becomes about the protagonist overcoming whatever their internal weakness is to either ultimately accomplish the goal or to ultimately fail.

Is that what always happens? Not necessarily, but most of the time, it is. The transition between Act II and Act III must be the most dramatic moment of your screenplay, and I have seen too many examples from aspiring writers when that moment falls flat. If that dramatic moment means Will breaks up with Skylar in Good Will Hunting, then that’s what it is. If it means Indiana Jones loses the Ark of the Covenant to the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, then that’s what it is. Or it could be something like the Rebels deciphering the plans to the Death Star and figuring out how to destroy it as it bears down to destroy them in Star Wars. It isn’t an “all-is-lost” moment, but the direction of the story shifts from them trying to escape the Death Star to them trying to destroy it.

That is the overriding point of what is being said here. The transition from Act II to Act III must be and/or do a couple of things. It must either be the most dramatic moment in the script where your hero loses everything, or it must change the direction of the story because what had been the main goal of the story was either already accomplished or has been made impossible to accomplish. Either way, the hero is forced to change direction to accomplish her ultimate goal.

Consider Raiders of the Lost Ark for a moment. When Act I ends, Indy’s goal is to find the Ark of the Covenant. Well, he finds it in the middle of Act II. At that point, his goal shifts to keeping the Nazis from getting it. Act II ends with the Nazis doing just that, and they kidnap Marion to boot. It looks like Indy has failed, and now he must change direction again and spend Act III getting the Ark back from the Nazis.

The major plot points of a script should always change the story’s direction. Whether it’s setting off on the adventure at the end of Act I or appearing to have failed at the end of Act II and needing to overcome some inner weakness to accomplish that goal in Act III, new and experienced writers must make sure that moment that transitions us from Act II to Act III is dramatic enough to change the story’s direction. Otherwise, the story’s structure will fall flat, as will the story’s entire sense of drama.

Proofread Your Screenplay!

This might seem like an afterthought, but proofreading is an underrated skill in screenwriting. It should not be underestimated, though, how important it is. A script laden with typing errors, spelling errors, and formatting errors will be destined for the “pass” pile. It doesn’t matter how good your story is, how likable your characters are, or how the riveting action will keep people on the edge of their seats. If the script isn’t presented professionally, the people reading it will assume you’re an amateur, and they will move on to the next script in the stack.

Don’t be one of those writers.

You might think this goes without saying, but I have received several scripts over the years with multiple errors per page. I tell writers that if I were a studio reader or executive, I would stop reading after a certain number of errors. If you don’t care enough about your own screenplay to take the time to literally make sure your I’s are dotted and your T’s are crossed, why should I care about whether the story is any good or not?

The other problem is that it smacks of laziness when a screenplay clearly hasn’t been proofread. If you won’t make an effort to make sure your work is clean on your own, then how can I count on you to make the required effort when I call out notes or rewrites? The entertainment industry is a detail-oriented business, and if your script isn’t buttoned up, you will not be taken seriously as a writer.

I have been guilty of a few typing errors here and there, and some executives will let that slide while others will call it out. But when there are so many errors that it becomes distracting, there’s no way in hell you’re getting that executive, producer, or agent to consider your script. In fact, it’s not likely it will even make it that far, as the reader or assistant will probably pass on it before it even makes it up the ladder.

Do yourself a favor.

Take pride in your work. Demonstrate your willingness to go the extra mile to ensure your work is presented professionally. Do not cut corners on proofreading because I don’t want to have to think about all the errors while I’m reading it when I should be thinking about how good the story is and how much I like the characters.

Story Structure In Your Screenplay and The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is an Excellent Tool for Structuring the Story of Your Screenplay

For all those screenwriters struggling with story structure, I like to suggest using the Hero’s Journey as an outline and determining where your hero is in the story at each of the Journey’s twelve stages. Looking at a diagram of the Hero’s Journey, one can see how the stages break down on a per-act basis. Rather than thinking of a script in terms of 30 or up to 60 pages, one can look at the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey; with each stage being 5-10 pages, writing a screenplay becomes much more palatable.

Act I

  • Ordinary World: The Hero living her normal life. Something is wrong or out of balance, but no acknowledgment of that is made.
  • Call to Adventure: An inciting incident leads the Hero to discover this lack of balance that must be corrected.
  • Refusal: Believing the challenge is too great, the Hero turns down the opportunity to go on the adventure.
  • Meeting the Mentor: This character may already have been introduced, but he helps push the hero towards going on the adventure, often by giving the hero something, whether it’s a physical gift or just advice and encouragement.
  • Crossing the First Threshold: The Hero leaves the Ordinary World and enters the Special World, committing to the adventure.

Act IIA

  • Tests, Allies & Enemies: The first tests the Hero faces on her adventure. These prepare her for bigger challenges ahead.
  • Approach: The Hero prepares for what will be the biggest challenge yet.
  • Supreme Ordeal: This challenge often raises the stakes for the hero, and sends the story in another direction. Consider Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is when Indiana Jones discovers the Ark of the Covenant, so the story shifts from looking for the Ark to preventing the Nazis from getting it.

Act IIB

  • Reward: The Hero gets a break after surviving the Ordeal. This is often a love scene or a scene in a bar.
  • The Road Back: Sometimes referred to as the “all is lost” moment, the hero, unable to overcome her inner flaw, appears to lose all hope of accomplishing her outer goal.

Act III

  • Resurrection: The Hero overcomes her inner flaw, thus growing and learning as a person.
  • Return with the Elixir: In the story’s climax, the hero wins the day (or doesn’t) and gains new knowledge to become a more complete person (or she dies).

This template can be valuable to screenwriters of all levels, but especially for beginning or novice screenwriters who are still learning the craft and finding their voices. Using this as a template and fitting your protagonist into each of these stages will not only help structure the screenplay properly, but it will also help build drama, develop character depth, and maximize the story’s pacing.