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Dir: James Mangold | Writers: James Mangold, Jay Cocks | Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton, Scoot McNairy, Boyd Holbrook | US Docudrama 141’
New York 1961. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval an enigmatic 19-year-old from Hibbing Missouri arrives with his guitar and revolutionary talent destined to change the course of American music, at the same time as the Beatles across the Atlantic in England.
A Complete Unknown is the 13th movie about the American singer Bob Dylan. James Mangold’s docudrama takes its title from a song from the 1965 album ‘Highway 61 Revisited’. It charts Dylan’s meteoric rise to fame embarking on a journey from Minnesota to New York to meet Woody Guthrie and culminating with his ground-breaking 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival when he plugged in an electric guitar to pioneer his transition into rock to the dismay of folk fans. Dylan forges intimate relationships with folk icons of Greenwich Village: Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Johnny Cash who were all pivotal in his future success, along with his manager Albert Grossman (Dan Folger). Taking the city by storm Dylan cuts a swathe through the music scene beating his own path from folk singer to rock star with a controversial performance that reverberates worldwide.
Timothee Chalamet, now a superstar himself, plays Dylan with same gravelly voice and recalcitrant insouciance in an electrifying performance that rocks from the rafters in James Mangold’s docudrama. Chalamet embodies the vulnerability and subversive unruliness of one of music history’s most iconic singer songwriters, still rocking at 83 and in the midst of his three-year world tour.
According to sources, Dylan was ‘hands-on with the script’ for this rousing epic, and even has an executive producer credit. Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger with empathetic confidence while pioneering his own music as an instrument for social change. Elle Fanning shimmers as Dylan’s stable rock Sylvie Russo (real name Rotolo), a poignant and thoughtful first lover who knows, as a fellow artist, only too well when her time has come to bow out of his life. Monica Barbaro, sparkles as the sultry storied folk singer with an impressive vocal delivery as Joan Baez who shared a tempestuous relationship with Dylan, but also enabled his path to stardom by covering his breakout songs. Boyd Holbrook stirs it all up as Johnny Cash with his assured pizzazz and dashing guitar numbers he believed in Dylan and supported his vision. Mangold’s Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line won an Oscar. There’s humour too: one scene pictures Dylan and his manager in bed together. This is a film that never takes itself too seriously and one you won’t want to miss, fan or no fan, picturing a celebrated cultural decade, and a living legend with over 40 recorded albums to his 60 year career, and still counting.
In an interview in ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine James Mangold describes his film as ‘more of an ensemble piece rather than only about Dylan’ who granted the director music rights for his film whose focus is “a very specific moment” in time. Mangold and his co-writer Jay Cocks capture the zeitgeist of a memorable time of flux when significant events coalesce and become seared to the collective consciousness: JFK’s 1963 shooting; the Civil Rights Act, and footage of CBSNews Anchorman Walter Cronkite reporting on the Cuban Missile Crisis as it breaks on Bob’s TV while the singer crafts his own musical bombshell.
Chalamet, Norton, Barbaro, Holbrook and others sang every song live on set and their performances were extensively used in the final film. Chalamet remained strictly in character during filming, insisting on being referred to as “Bob Dylan” throughout, and learned to play over 30 Bob Dylan songs fluently. Norton and Barbaro trained for many months to learn the banjo and guitar for the film.
The film opens in the UK on 17th January 2025
Watch trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdV-Cs5o8mc&t=3s
