The new movie, A Complete Unknown: a biopic of American musician Bob Dylan, starring Timothée Chalamet premiered on Christmas Day. The movie shows Dylan’s career during the span of five years, 1961-1966. As someone who has heard of Bob Dylan but wasn’t super familiar, seeing this movie was a perfect gateway into discovering in full depth of Dylan’s music.
Bob Dylan’s History
Not knowing much of Bob Dylan this movie has awoken a new perception of music to me. Watching interviews to interviews I learned how much of an impact he made through his change in music. Starting off by writing folklore music Dylan began shifting gears when it came to the style of guitar he would use. The movie perfectly captured the essence of Dylan’s fans reacting harshly to him singing Like A Rolling Stone at the Folklore Festival. One of my favorite moments of Dylan’s career I’ve learned was that he won The Nobel Prize for literature. He did not attend the ceremony…!
Timothee Chalamet’s Performance
The movie perfectly captures this especially through Timothee Chalamet’s performance and resemblance. Beginning from the walk to Dylan’s mannerism this movie even without knowing the artist begins to speak to you. As an actor, you are able to play characters from a new world or impactful people from the past, but portraying a person who is still alive is something nerve wracking. Chalamet mentions in several interviews how he prepared for this role for five years, due to the pandemic and the writers strike. Jumping from voice coaches to instrumental coaches, Chalamet polished these skills which led to him singing live for the movie.
Bob Dylan’s Contribution to the Movie
As many of you might know or might not, due to the musician being a man of few words, Bob Dylan is still alive. Dylan actually took time and read through the script leaving notes. A producer of the film said through the Forbes interview, “Through that process, [Dylan] sat there writing notes on the script,” Jaysen added. “At the end of the last session with Jim Mangold, he signed the script and said, ‘Go with God.’” In many interviews it was said that Dylan did not want to include the real name of a person played by Elle Fanning. Knowing that this biopic was first seen and revised by the actual musician allowed the fans to be honored with such work along with leaving the theater questioning some of his choices.
Overall, as someone who was slightly familiar with Bob Dylan, this movie was something I wholeheartedly enjoyed and it left me blasting songs of Dylan the moment I left the theater!
