With head bowed down, dark glasses on, and an almost whisper/slurry voice, Timothée Chalamet portrays Bob Dylan from his days as a complete unknown to superstar, chased down Manhattan streets by screaming fans. The theatre on this Christmas Day opening of A Complete Unknown was made up of gray-haired seniors who may have been in the audience when the folk singer first appeared in Manhattan’s village clubs, then at Town Hall, the Newport Folk Festival and eventually around the world. It’s a remarkable turn for Chalamet who wasn’t born until 1995 to embody how the world saw Dylan, from the way he walks, plays the harmonica, and appears unfazed by his soaring success in 1961.
The early 60’s was a tumultuous time as black and white televisions replayed news reports of the October missile crises, marches for civil rights, the Kennedy assassinations, while Dylan composes song after song at a small desk with guitar on his lap, cigarette between his fingers, obtaining inspiration from the world events.
Edward Norton (Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024)
When he takes the stage at Folk City, he first performs the folk standards sung by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger but is pulled to write his own songs which propel him to greater success. We get the impression that when Dylan first sings his new songs in the recording studio, they already feel like standards to the recording engineers as their eyes widen at the maturity of the lyrics and their catchy melodies.
We know that Guthrie was an early inspiration for Dylan as we watch him take a cab from Manhattan, in the opening scene, to Guthrie’s hospital bed in New Jersey, to meet his hero and play for him. Nods to both Scoot McNairy who plays Guthrie and Ed Norton who embodies the banjo-playing singer-songwriter who introduces Dylan at his first on-stage appearance.
Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro (Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2024)
Dylan flip flops between two lovers in these early days, the activist Sylvia Russo (Elle Fanning), and then flirting with and eventually falling for folk favorite, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), without giving up on Russo. Much of the middle of the movie consists of this love triangle as Dylan goes back and forth between the two women, one a reminder of his early simpler days, and the other, on a path to even greater stardom that Dylan wants to follow.
Timothée Chalamet (Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2024)
And then we have the singing. Close your eyes and you’ll think it was Dylan’s own voice and it’s where Chalamet’s performance shines. Doing his own singing, the actor completes the full Dylan experience as he strums the guitar and sings those powerful lyrics, with the harmonica accompaniment; we see what made Dylan the icon that he is. It takes a lot of courage and confidence for an actor to portray such a legend, but Chalamet did his homework, and has the look, the hair, and a prestigious resume of films that shows his breadth of talent.
Where the movie fails – and it’s a forgivable one – is not giving any clue to Dylan’s upbringing except for a piece of mail addressed to Robert Zimmerman. It would have been satisfying to see a glimpse, a conversation or image, to provide insight as to what he was exposed to in his youth. At one point, Russo asks how he learned to play the guitar, and he replies that he taught himself. It’s not much, but it’s something. Perhaps it’s best that Dylan remains the mystery he always was.
Timothée Chalamet (Photo by James Mangold, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2024)
A Complete Unknown covers the formative years of Dylan’s career and takes us through to the Newport Folk Festival and to the controversy surrounding his performance with a full rock and roll band, with amps and electric guitars. It’s an interesting debate as we see both sides: the Pete Seeger supporters who want to keep the folk music “pure,” and the other side, those who’ve embraced the lyrics to “The Times They Are A’ Changing.”
Interesting to note as the credits rolled, Chalamet continued singing Dylan tunes. The audience did not get up to leave until the last note was sung, and the theatre lights came on. That has to say something about the power of Dylan’s music to continue to take hold of an audience all these years later.
Top: Timothée Chalamet (Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024)
