Timothée Chalamet Channels Bob Dylan in Riveting New Biopic

By Anne Wainscott-Sargent

As a child of the ’70s and ‘80s, I missed the meteoric rise of Bob Dylan, who gained prominence in the 1960s with hits like “The Times they are a-Changin” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.’ The latter was a key anthem for the civil rights and antiwar movements.

I preferred singer-songwriters like Elton John and Simon & Garfunkel. Hearing Dylan’s folksy and slightly nasal vocal style as a young girl, I thought, “The guy can’t sing.” I wasn’t alone.  Bruce Springsteen’s mother concluded the same thing the first time she heard Dylan on the radio with her then-15-year-old son, Springsteen recalled at the induction of Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. 

“[Dylan’s music] sounded simultaneously young and adult…The way Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind,” Springsteen said. “He showed us that just because the music was innately physical did not mean it was anti-intellect.”

But after previewing Timothée Chalamet’s turn as a young Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s biopic of the elusive singer in A Complete Unknown, I finally understood Springsteen’s (and the world’s) admiration for the iconic artist. From the moment Chalamet appears on the screen as Dylan, newly arrived in New York City from Minnesota with only his guitar and backpack and a calm confidence of knowing who he is, I was riveted.

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THE RISE OF A FOLK STAR

The biopic A Complete Unknown takes you through four years of Dylan’s life, when he goes from an unknown talent to a seemingly overnight folk megastar.  Against the backdrop of Greenwich Village in the early ’60s, Dylan’s world intersects with the likes of Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, and an ailing Woody Guthrie.    

Chalamet is joined by an outstanding supporting cast led by Ed Norton, who plays folk music legend Seager, Monica Barbaro as Baez, already folk’s reigning queen, and Elle Fanning, a fictionalized character named Sylvie Rosso, based loosely on an early Dylan girlfriend. It’s all the more impressive that these actors performed such well-beloved songs and accompanying instruments live during filming. That takes guts.

The scenes when Chalamet engages with Fanning and Barbaro truly stuck out not only for showing Dylan in love, but also his single-minded focus to create music on his own terms to the exclusion of the people in his life.

In turn, the film captured Dylan’s feelings of alienation as his fame grew and the quirky introvert’s brilliance as a lyricist and poet. Most of all, the movie conveys his insistence on being accepted on his own terms as an artist not defined by one genre. We see this when he “goes electric” and abandons his acoustic guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

REFLECTING ON DYLAN’S IMPACT AND LEGACY

It took a few decades, but I now appreciate why Dylan is a big deal and why he was the first musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Chalamet’s rendition of “The Times They Are a-Changin” was, in a word, spellbinding, perhaps due to the fact that the actor had ample time to master Dylan’s musical style. Film production was delayed first because of the pandemic and then an actors’ strike.

The wait was well worth it: The movie made me an overnight fan of both Chalamet and Dylan, and I admit that after leaving the theatre, I was sad to have to wait until  Christmas to see the movie again. I comforted myself by creating a Bob Dylan Spotify playlist (including two new releases by Chalamet ahead of the US and UK release of the film) and ordering a copy of Chronicles: Volume One, the 2004 first memoir of Bob Dylan in his own words.

Whether you’re a Dylan devotee or have never gotten into his music, I recommend giving this film a chance. Adding A Complete Unknown to your holiday must-see films will be a gift that keeps on giving long after the movie credits appear.

Anne Wainscott-Sargent is a Gen-X mother of two sons and three dogs, who frequently writes about space and the next big things in tech. Follow her on X https://x.com/AnneWainscott