Since the 1960s, Bob Dylan has been a staple in the music industry with many hit songs including “Knocking on Heavens Door”, and “Like a Rolling Stone”. The newest edition to Bob Dylan biopics, ‘A Complete Unknown’, was released in theaters on December 25th, 2024, starring Timothee Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, and Elle Fanning. The movie was directed by James Mangold, and the screenplay was co-written by Mangold and Jay Cocks. The film is based on Elijah Wood’s book, “Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties”.
The movie focuses on 1960’s Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet), who was, at the time, an up-and-coming folk musician. At the start of the movie, Dylan moves to New York to meet his recently hospitalized idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), another 1960’s famous folk musician. He meets Guthrie, along with Guthrie’s friend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), at the hospital and plays a song he made for Gutherie. Both impressed by the performance, Seeger invites Dylan to stay with his family and slowly introduces him to New York City’s folk music scene. From then, with the help of Seeger, Dylan began to grow in popularity and was signed by a label where he began to create his first album. However, as Dylan begins to work on the album, his label forces him to record mostly covers, limiting his musical freedom. The sales for this album were poor, angering Dylan, and persuading him to go begin achieving his artistic freedom.
Throughout the movie, we see Dylan rebel against what the public and his label want him to record, which is folk music. Desiring to break free from the expectations held against him, Dylan starts experimenting with electric guitar and rock instruments, branching out of the folk music world. While many people were against Dylan’s new use of electric instruments in his music, the movie shows how this controversy is a big staple in how Dylan became who he is today.
Aside from the music aspect of the film, we also see Dylan go through a couple of love affairs as well. At the beginning of the film, Dylan meets Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) at a concert where they begin their relationship. Around the same time, Dylan also meets Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), a famous folk musician, at an open microphone night where he flirts with Baez while on stage. Soon after, Russo leaves on a lengthy school trip to Europe, urging Dylan to record original music while she’s gone. He ends up doing so, drawing the attention of Baez and the two begin an affair while also collaborating artistically. Russo becomes suspicious of the relationship between Dylan and Baez and then starts a series of complicated events among the three.
Since the release of this movie, it has been nominated for many awards, including Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA, Critics Choice, and many more. The movie comes with good ratings as well with an 80% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a 3.5/5 stars on Letterboxd. “I walked into the theater expecting an average movie and was surprised to find that it was actually really good. I thought the storyline of how Bob Dylan began to how he became a star was portrayed really well on screen and the music was perfectly replicated,” says Senior Margaret Wilson. ‘A Complete Unknown’ also had huge success in the box office during its release making 7.2 million dollars on just the first day and a total of $23.2 million over the course of 5 days. It also became the highest-grossing Searchlight title movie of all time and was named one of the top 10 films of 2024 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.
What makes this movie as successful as it has become, is the music. The film features 26 different Dylan songs, some including “It Ain’t Me Babe”, “Highway 61 Revisited”, and “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Each of the 26 songs was performed live by Timothee Chalamet during the filming of this movie showing the dedication and authenticity that was put to portray Dylan’s music. Chalamet also went through voice and dialect coaching during the five years of this film’s creation to replicate Dylan’s exact nasally voice. All of these combined allowed the songs in this movie to sound very similar to the real recordings, impressing many true Dylan fans, which helped contribute to its box office success. Senior Grace Edens adds her own opinions on the music saying, “I enjoy listening to Bob Dylan and was excited to see how the music was going to sound in the film. I thought it was a pretty spot-on rendition of Dylan’s music, which is impressive since his music is hard to recreate.”
Bob Dylan fan or not, this movie is one that everyone should watch. The five years of hard work and dedication put into this film paid off, as it was a great biopic of the rise of Dylan and his music. The costume design, storyline, music, and acting were all spot-on and as perfect as one could get it. To those wanting to watch the movie, “A Complete Unknown” goes on streaming on February 25, 2025, and will be available on platforms like Prime Video and Apple.
