Without a doubt one of the most influential American musicians of the twentieth century, Bob Dylan is the focus of A Complete Unknown, from his arrival in New York in 1961 with just a guitar until 1965 when he rocked the folk music community to its core at the Newport Folk Festival by going electric. The film takes place over just those few years, but they were some of the most iconic years in music and in American history. Timothée Chalamet does an amazing job channeling the young Bob, playing and singing his songs, but the mystery of what makes Dylan Dylan remains.
The film begins with Dylan arriving in NY seeking out his hero Woody Guthrie ((Scoot McNairy) who was already hospitalized with the disease that would later kill him. It is there he meets Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) who becomes his friend and mentor. And from there he’s on his way to the clubs in Greenwich Village where all the cool folk musicians of the day are playing. He meets his girlfriend, Sylvie (Elle Fanning) and also the very famous singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) Dylan is an instant hit and the record execs are there to snap him up and market him. But he just wants to write and play and is a bit perturbed by the success and fandom.
The film strikes a balance between Dylan’s personal life and his career. His early relationship with Sylvie is sweet and she’s the girl in the famous album cover walking down the street with him. She is involved with a lot of the progressive causes of the day, and as time goes on his music becomes more and more concerned with social justice and civil rights. But his relationship with Sylvie hits a wall when he and Joan Baez begin touring together and begin their own rocky relationship. But through everything, it is about his music and his commitment to writing and performing and being led by what he needs to play.
It isn’t a perfect film. But it is a good one worth seeing. Chalamet gives us his version of Dylan, not a characature, thankfully. And it will make you want to ask Alexa to for a Dylan playlist one afternoon soon.
In theaters December 25