A Complete Unknown

Soon, the life of one of the greatest musicians of folklore music will be shown on worldwide screens from the end of January, starring Timothée Chalamet in his shoes.

A Complete Unknown, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. Available via Vogue © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

James Mangold's new film, A Complete Unknown, dives into the eccentric musical world of the 1960s, storytelling the foundational years of Bob Dylan as he rose from obscurity to become a cultural icon. Starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob, the movie paints a rich portrait of the development of a common guy, whose only certainty is his guitar, becoming one of the biggest folk stars that the music industry has ever seen.

A Complete Unknown, Courtesy of Macall Polay Available via Vogue © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Set in New York City's burgeoning folk scene, the film captures Dylan’s relentless drive to redefine music through a poetic lens. Thimothee’s physical and emotional transformation, fully resulted in the embodiments of the captivating and restless spirit that guided Dylan through life. The actor, in fact, had to fully master the guitar, harmonica, and Dylan’s distinctive vocal style, in order to reach the bars, which were set very high for a distinct character like a musical icon.

The heart of A Complete Unknown lies in the exploration of Dylan's music as a force for change: songs like Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’ weave through the narrative, as patterns of themes such as social justice and self-expression that defined the 1960s. These tracks, performed with reverence and raw emotion by Timothée, were in fact the emotional anchor of the movie, which flow scene after scene with rawness and naturalness like life itself.

The supporting cast adds depth to Dylan’s journey, with Monica Barbaro portraying Joan Baez and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger: their characters reflect the collaborative and often contentious relationships that shaped Dylan’s rise to success, where moments of tension, confusion, and idealism highlight the components of a musical era, where lyrics were not only a form of expression but a manifesto itself against mediocrity and stagnancy.

By focusing on Dylan’s early years, the film avoids over-romanticizing his legend; instead, it offers an intimate glimpse into his relentless pursuit of artistic authenticity and the core development that brought him to the character that is known worldwide nowadays. Thimotee’s performance, described as “electrifying,” captures Dylan’s ability to channel the anxieties and aspirations of his time into his form of music, where the genre of folk is the dimension that can hold this huge metaphorical volcano.

A Complete Unknown is more than a biographical film—it’s a celebration of music’s transformative power and as the story unfolds, it reminds us of the ability of creating a powerful movement through authenticity and connections to our own values and feelings—a quality that needs to be reminded not only in the artistry industry but screamed to the entire population in an era where disconnection is the easy pill to keep going. It’s a celebration of choosing the real path, the truest way to get the most out of life, and all of this can be seen just in someone’s life.