A Complete Unknown isn’t just a movie. It’s a lightning bolt that takes us back to the early 1960s, a time when a young man with a guitar could genuinely change the world. This film focuses on Bob Dylan’s electric rise from a Minnesota kid named Robert Zimmerman to the king of folk music. But the real headline here is the performance by Timothee Chalamet.
Chalamet, known for his impressive acting in movies like Dune and Wonka, had the impossible job of playing one of the most complex artists in modern music. And he nails it. He doesn’t just mimic Dylan’s famous look or his slightly raspy singing style. He actually nails the restless energy and the intense and focused ambition that sprung Dylan forward. You feel the weight of every song he writes and the pressure he feels as the world tries to list his name as the “voice of a generation.” And to be honest, the film’s best moments are the quiet ones: For example it could be Chalamet sitting alone in a cheap apartment, angrily typing out lyrics on a typewriter, or nervously stepping onto a smoke filled stage for the very first time in his life. He shows us the work behind the genius, not just the genius itself.
Director James Mangold gives the film a unique, black and white look that perfectly emphasizes the formal and stiff audience of music enjoyers of early 1960s New York. The script does a great job of showing Dylan’s transition from mimicking his idol, Woody Guthrie, to finding his own independent voice. We see him dealing with personal issues, meeting legendary musicians, and struggling with this sudden, massive fame that comes when your songs start playing in rallies and protests across the country.
One of the most human elements of the movie is the tension between Dylan and the folk community. The film doesn’t shy away from the backlash when Dylan decides to stop writing simple protest songs and starts experimenting with more poetic lyrics and, most famously, when he picks up that electric guitar. The final scenes, leading up to the infamous Newport Folk Festival moment, are displayed with insane tension. You can almost feel the crowd’s anger and how Dylan disregards it all at once. The film makes it clear that Dylan wasn’t trying to please anyone. He was just trying to follow his art, even if it meant betraying the people who helped him most.
My only real complaint is that the film throws so much history into a short time frame that some of the supporting characters, like Dylan’s early girlfriends or fellow musicians, feel a bit underdeveloped. But in the end, it’s a movie about transformation, and Chalamet makes that transformation believable. If you love music history or just appreciate a fantastic acting performance, A Complete Unknown is a must see.
