Timothée Chalamet amazes as Bob Dylan

“How does it feel?” To be without a home? Like a complete stranger? Like a rolling stone?”

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard these lyrics and this song, but I never really gave it much thought until I saw James Mangold’s very rich story of four years in the life of a young Bob Dylan in the early 1960s. There is this anti-biopic in this text, A completely unknown, gets its title and also tries to define who Dylan (excellently played by Timothée Chalamet, who plays the tone perfectly) was as he tried to find his way after traveling from his home in Minnesota to New York City in 1961. He emerged at the ripe old age of 19, a budding genius who didn’t know it at the time but fundamentally changed the musical landscape in the middle of the decade while trying to figure out who the artist really was as a young man.

Dylan was then, and in some ways still is, an enigma, truly brilliant, but one who forged his own path to show who was on the inside – a question you may still be able to ask. He captured the end of a folk music tradition, which for him was particularly represented in the form of the legendary Woody Guthrie (beautifully played in his final days by Scott McNairy), whom Dylan idolized and whom he simply wanted to meet. This is depicted in a sequence where he visits the fading Guthrie in his hospital room to play him a song he wrote for him. It is a remarkable early scene as it also signifies the passing of a creative torch, musically the beginning of the end of an era in which one innovator recognizes another, both very different but no less influential. At the end of this film and a concert at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan shocked the world by “going electric,” we will witness the birth of a new legend, a game-changer who would eventually win Oscars and Nobel Prizes and not perform willing to accept both.

Mangold, who directed it in 2005 Walk the line, The life and music of Johnny and June Carter Cash, also at an early turning point in their careers, returns to the musical form he seems to long for. This isn’t the cradle-to-grave musical biopic we’ve seen lately with Freddy Mercury, Elton John and, again this season, Robbie Williams Better man (although Williams is depicted as a chimpanzee in this musical film), but rather someone who was more interested in a time in which a changing world shaped its subject matter, and events ranging from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Kennedy assassination to the Civil Rights Movement had a profound impact on all of us – and no less than on Bob Dylan himself.

Think about the songs this man wrote back then. “Mr. “Tambourine Man”, “It Ain’t Me Babe”, “All I Really Want To Do”, “Blowin in the Wind”, “Girl From The North Country”, “The Times They Are a Changin'” .There was also “Like a Rolling Stone,” part of Dylan’s historic song Highway 61 revised album and so on. Mangold and his music supervisors brilliantly weave this music into a soundtrack that never stops, but thankfully doesn’t turn into a jukebox musical.

The focus here is heavily on the man and his relationships, particularly with two important women in his life. Elle Fanning wonderfully plays his first real love, Sylvie Russo (a name synonymous with the real Suze Ruiolo, who wanted to protect Dylan by giving his blessing to the filmmakers). She is an activist, someone who had a profound impact on Dylan’s social consciousness, even if he wasn’t fully aware of the impact. She knew him early in his career, and as his fame came into focus, it took its toll; Dylan wasn’t always there, a man too often lost in his music to focus on personal relationships. Another was with Joan Baez, played by a stunning Monica Barbaro, who had been around the fame block before Dylan, which might have attracted him, but was also deeply invested in bringing protest and justice into her art, in a way way that suited him. It was a complicated pairing that didn’t last long. “You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,” Baez says, after insulting her songs at one point. A complete unknown paints a nice contrast between the two women.

Another important relationship portrayed is would-be mentor Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), the traditional balladeer who wanted to take on the role vacated by Guthrie, but also acted as a sort of mentor to Dylan – until he turned on his head became. This is where this film comes in, which is somewhat based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book. Dylan goes electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the night that divided the sixtiesis on the way. This title actually says it all, and turns out to be more of a backdrop to the final act of the film than the whole thing. It was here that the traditional Woodstock-style folk concert took place, which was a showcase for folk talent for years and became a landmark of change on this special day in 1965, a place where Seeger felt betrayed by his friend Dylan , because there was no better description, electrically connected to its backup tape. Music, at least in this genre, would never be the same again. Few things have ever signaled the end of an era and the beginning of a new one as literally as this event, and it is given exciting life in its recreation by Mangold, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, adding many layers the human side of Dylan, which the book doesn’t go into with such personal details. Dylan is undeniably complex, at one point complaining about what fans want from him. “They should just let me be whatever they don’t want me to be,” he says.

The focus is on a remarkable performance by Chalamet, who performs all the songs himself in an amazing and authentic way. There is no lip syncing or mixing of voices between actor and subject. It’s all Chalamet in the same way Walk along the line was all Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, and A miner’s daughter was all Sissy Spacek. Done correctly as it is here, it enriches this film immensely without becoming an imitation. Chalamet takes great care to capture Dylan in every moment, with vocals that are breathtaking to watch; The work he put into every aspect of recording Dylan is evident. Both Fanning and Barbaro are great, with the latter also providing her own vocals as Baez, which is simply impossible to imitate, but Barbaro comes into her own. Norton not only looks uncannily like Seeger, he also becomes him, even when the veteran singer is finally threatened by what he embodies in Dylan. Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash also has some short memorable scenes, as do Dan Fogler and Norbert Leo Butz from Dylan’s life.

Technically, the film is top notch, with excellent production design by Francois Audouy, costume design by Arianne Phillips, and Phedon Papamichael’s sharp cinematography, all beautifully capturing early ’60s New York.

The music is worth the price of admission, of course, but thankfully in Mangold’s hands there’s so much more to add that makes Bob Dylan a little less complete unknown at the time of the credits.

Producers are Fred Berger, Mangold, Alex Heineman, Bob Bookman, Peter Jaysen, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen and Chalamet.

Title: A complete unknown
Distributor: Searchlight images
Release date: December 25, 2024 (December 18 at select Imax locations)
Director: James Mangold
Screenwriters: James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Pour: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy
Evaluation: R
Duration: 2 hours 21 minutes