Bob Dylan is one of the most important musicians of his time. He revolutionized the music landscape, pushing the boundaries of folk music with poetic lyricism that went against traditional songwriting. Many of his songs became anthems for civil rights and anti-war movements in the 60s and inspired other genres moving forward. This past holiday season, A Complete Unknown was released to theaters, a biopic covering Dylan’s initial rise to fame. 

Dylan is portrayed by Timothée Chalamet, who bears a resemblance to a younger Bob. Chalamet does an impressive job of being able to disappear into the role, as at some point in the movie I almost forgot it was him. He nails Dylan’s distinctive voice and his delivery really amplifies the line he’s reading. It is no secret that Chalamet is a talented actor, and in this movie, that is no different. 

What is interesting to note is that this biopic doesn’t cover Bob Dylan’s entire career – just his rise to fame, which spans from 1961 to 1965. We see him move to New York City with almost nothing except his guitar and dreams of becoming a successful musician. The movie sees how over the course of just a couple of years, Dylan solidifies himself as a cultural icon. So while the movie covers a small portion of his life, it is arguably the most pivotal part.  

Bob Dylan was known as someone who hated conforming to traditional music and always pushed himself to create something different than what was normal at the time. This is what the conflict centers around. We see Dylan face plenty of external pressure to do exactly what his fans and the record label want. They want him to stick with his folk roots that initially made him famous, and continue to perform his most popular songs during live performances. But Dylan has no desire to do any of the sort and would rather create music that challenges and redefines the folk genre, for which he faces an extreme amount of backlash. 

The 1965 Newport Folk Festival serves as the movie’s climax. This was a significant moment in music history, when Dylan shifted from acoustic folk to electric folk, combining the folk and rock genres for the first time. He performed three songs backed by electric instruments, which fans saw as a betrayal of traditional folk. This was my favorite scene, as it contextualized a lot of previous scenes that showcased Dylan’s rebellious nature and refusal to conform.  

I got a lot out of this moment, as I love and enjoy when artists experiment with their new material when they can easily stick with the music that they might be known for making. An artist can make an album that becomes a smash hit, though when it comes to the album that follows it, they are faced with a choice. Do they essentially make the same album again and confirm their success? Or do they branch out and create something that ventures into a new style, despite what their fans might be used to? 

I found this movie to be interesting. I went into it knowing close to nothing about Bob Dylan, and while it did only cover a small portion of his life and career, it meant that the movie was able to drill down into this short time period and give a lot of attention and care to everything that came with it. Bob Dylan’s entire career spans a very long time, he is still performing to this day. Perhaps a movie that tried to cover more of his career would’ve resulted in a lot of important context being cut for time’s sake. I’m glad the movie was set during a small period, as it allowed more focus on what was happening. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and I feel inspired to go check out some of his work. 

4/5 stars

An inner-city high school becomes the testing ground for an intrusive new security system in Happyend, the debut feature from Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora.

Through the prism of this institution, the film observes the strengthening grip of an authoritarian regime as anxiety builds over an impending earthquake and widespread malaise among the adolescent community is quashed with an iron fist.

Students Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka) are best friends and founders of the school music club. When caught sneaking into a nightclub, Yuta is let off with a slapped wrist, but as Kou is Korean, the police immediately give him grief, even questioning the legitimacy of his Japanese residency.

When the boys pull an elaborate prank on their corrupt principal (Shiro Sano), upending his luxury sports car in the school courtyard, the faculty fights back by installing state-of-the-art surveillance cameras around campus.

For Kou, this is the final straw. Sick of being incessantly discriminated against, he falls in with Fumi (Kilala Inori), a girl with ties to an activist group, and over time, he steadily becomes radicalised.

Brave the Dark, 2025.

Directed by Damian Harris.
Starring Jared Harris, Nicholas Hamilton, Jamie Harris, Sasha Bhasin, Will Price, Daisy Galvis and Joey Cabrera.

SYNOPSIS:

Haunted by torturous childhood memories, Nate Williams finds himself engulfed in darkness. When his drama teacher, Mr. Deen bails him out of jail and takes him in, Nate must confront his past before it leads to his own destruction.

Based on true events, director Damian Harris’ Brave the Dark follows homeless high school senior Nathan Williams (a leather jacket-sporting bad boy played by Nicholas Hamilton), troubled but kind and caught up in a rebellious crowd, also becoming the only one of that group to be punished for stealing from a home appliances store. Following a rather humiliating arrest at school (an effort to make an example out of his misdeeds), his girlfriend Tina (Sasha Bhasin) decides to step away from the relationship while most of the school faculty deem him a lost cause, relieved that they no longer have to deal with a student they attribute as disrespectful and lazy.

One particularly empathetic teacher isn’t ready to give up, as drama instructor Stan Deen (Jared Harris) steps in to not only try and get Nathan back on a more productive life path but to save him from serving time. Naturally, posting his bail turns out to be difficult, and the situation turns out to be much more dire than he ever imagined once he discovers that Nathan has been living in his car instead of a foster home. Nathan is also momentarily reunited with his strict, hard-edged grandparents, who are more concerned with making him work while also perceiving him as more of a burden than anything. The grandfather especially has a startling lack of empathy regarding some trauma that happened to Nathan’s mother, who died when he was six, cruelly stating that she made mistakes in life and got what was coming to her.

These grandparents clearly aren’t the proper guardians to assist Nathan with his current predicament and personal demons, so the well-meaning Stan goes through the trouble of getting authorization for the boy to live with him while helping turn his life around. It also made clear that Stan is already lonely, having lost his mom roughly a year ago, now living alone. This is not about one man’s loneliness, though, as he is a teacher who genuinely perceives his job as going beyond the classroom, subscribing to the notion that no child is hopeless.

As such, Brave the Dark works when it’s allowing Nicholas Hamilton and Jared Harris to talk, as each character slowly lets their guard down. Understandably, Nathan becomes confused about why Stan is going to such extremes to help change his life for the better, giving the expected problem of child resistance. The two often butt heads with Nicholas Hamilton convincingly portraying these conflicted emotions. Meanwhile, Jared Harris is terrific as a kindhearted soul, occasionally with an amusing dry sense of humor. Whenever they are interacting with one another, the film feels grounded and human.

However, and this could be a result of not only multiple screenwriters in Lynn Robertson Hay, Dale G. Bradley, and Damian Harris but also the fact that this is a script rewritten from the works of the actual Nathan and John P. Spencer, Brave the Dark also has several unnecessary melodramatic flourishes. It starts with flashbacks hinting that there is more to the death of Nathan’s mom than a supposed car accident (offering glimpses of an abusive partner.) Then it continues with Nathan gradually taking on the persona of that father when Tina regularly reaffirms that she doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. It’s a situation that only escalates when she quickly starts dating a boy Nathan already doesn’t like without any justifiable reason for doing so. 

There are solid thematic ideas and juxtapositions here, but the execution is noticeably weaker and forced compared to the drama that generally feels real and moving from letting Nicholas Hamilton and Jared Harris act. One wonders if the mystery element regarding what really happened to Nathan’s mom fits in this narrative simply because it consistently hurts the storytelling structure. A more restrained approach to that plot element might have been wiser (there are certainly some flashbacks that don’t need to be here) and further elevated some of the revelatory moments and closing speeches.

However, as a film about compassionate teachers going above and beyond whilst showing the impact they can have on a student’s life for the better, alongside an otherwise inspirational and compelling story for Nathan, it’s easy to brave the dark in Brave the Dark. It has flaws but is well-meaning, sincere, and potentially even crucial, considering teachers today are grossly undervalued.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd 

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