This Christmas saw the release of two new entries in long cinematic traditions. Let us now finally look at James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

It is 1961, and things are happening in the big city. A young man with a cute face and scruffy look appears on the well-worn sidewalk, armed with nothing but a guitar case. His goal is to locate and meet his hero, the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie.

Who is he? Not important — but he’s here to stay, for he has things to say.

Mangold avails himself much better in “A Complete Unknown” than he did with “Walk the Line,” a thoroughly unremarkable chronicling of Johnny Cash’s rise to country music stardom. The production is richer, the film’s look is less spick-and-span, and the performances are splendid across the board — Timothee Chalamet’s Dylan is a surprisingly natural thing, with one almost never being distracted by the star casting.

Structurally, too, the film makes good first steps. Instead of flashing back to a clichéd childhood that boils the central character down to daddy issues, Mangold introduces Dylan as he appeared initially to the world — a humble, awkward enigma — and marches forward, refusing to expound on what made him who we see today.

That said, it would have been nice if any sense of a character had emerged at any point from our protagonist. People ask throughout who Dylan is, what he stands for, and what he wants: his trademark answer is he doesn’t know or care. A fine response for the press, maybe, but the film itself seems to have no insight. Instead, we watch Dylan coast to fame and through women, with all but one of his choices a result of the company he takes (and one exception cannot quite a movie make).

“A Complete Unknown” also hearkens back to “The Social Network,” as Dylan is repeatedly told (with good cause) that, when it comes down to it, he’s little more than an asshole. But the film is muddled as to even this: whether he is one, whether he’s justified in being one, whether it’s actually Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez that sucks (such a bad take, by the way).

Despite an all-bangers soundtrack and some standout scenes, there is little-to-no substance to be gathered beneath this film’s handsome presentation. Dylan may have gone electric, but an audience seeing this likely won’t.