A full three days after seeing A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan songs – especially “Like a Rolling Stone” – are still running through my head.
It’s a tribute to the power of the film directed and co-written by James Mangold (with Jay Cocks) which traces Dylan’s journey from being, yes, a complete unknown to having the world at his feet in just four short years beginning in the early 1960s.
When news broke about Timothée Chalamet portraying the poetic singer, born Robert Zimmerman, it was perhaps a bit hard to imagine. But now that the performance is on celluloid, it’s apparent that all of the young actor’s work paid off in portraying the music icon starting when he was 19 years old and arriving in New York’s Greenwich Village.
His first order of business was meeting his folk hero, Woody Guthrie (portrayed by Scott McNairy), who was hospitalized with an unnamed ailment but tended to with love by another folk hero, Pete Seeger. Finding the hospital room, Dylan pulls out his guitar and the magic starts happening.
Next thing we know, Seeger, who is empathetically played by Ed Norton and is a touchstone throughout the story, not only gives Dylan a ride back into town but gives him a place to live, taking him in as a member of his family — and then starts getting him gigs.
Full disclosure: I am a casual Dylan fan and have often loved other artist’s covers of his songs often more than his originals. Case in point, Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.” Yet like countless millions of others, I still have long admired his artistry and lyricism. After all, isn’t he the only musician who’s ever received the Nobel Prize in literature? There’s a reason for that.
So the music in the film is absolutely thrilling as all of the songs performed are well-known, massive hits and while you don’t necessarily see the inspiration for some of them, you see the songwriting process.
Much of it includes his longtime girlfriend, here known as Sylvie Russo and played by the incandescent Elle Fanning. Hers is the only name that’s been changed from the actual real-life person. She was Suze Rotolo, the woman pictured with him on Dylan’s 1963 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”
Program note: the real Rotolo died in 2011 and Dylan himself reportedly asked that her name be fictionalized as she was not a public figure, according to Fanning.
Yet what really came to life were the limits of their relationship especially when Dylan began to fall very hard in love with Joan Baez, who was already a huge star who had graced the cover of Time magazine.
Even as they conducted their affair, one of the best lines in the film is when Baez, beautifully portrayed by Monica Barbara, says to him, “Bob, you’re kind of an asshole.”
Their relationship also has its limits as the movie portrays Dylan having impenetrable walls up when it comes to love. As he becomes more and more successful, he also becomes more rebellious and resentful of the music industry. It’s even illustrated as he and Baez perform together and he balks at doing the hit song “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
The film culminates with an incident at the Newport Folk Festival that had it not been true it would be very hard to believe and actually pretty ridiculous. Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) has a part in it and it’s another memorable portrayal of a musical artist in the magical orbit of Bob Dylan as he launched his storied career.
Whether you’re a fan of any of these artists, go see this film. After all, Dylan himself has blessed it – and that is high praise.
In early December he posted this on X: “There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me. The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”
Okay, so now I’m off to read the book and to watch Dylan videos on YouTube.
