A complete unknown shows up in Woody Guthrie‘s (played by Scoot McNairy) hospital room with his guitar. He is twenty years old and has come to New York City because he has heard that the folk singer-songwriter is seriously ill. Guthrie can’t talk, but through his friend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), he asks the guy to sing the song he wrote for him. The piece is named Song to Woody. The young composer’s real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, although he introduces himself as Bob Dylan. A name the world will soon know…

Usually, biopics tell the story of a celebrated person, uncovering hidden or ignored parts of their life and background. However, James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown is different: almost nothing about Dylan’s existence emerges, leaving him a mysterious figure. Yet the narrative plunges the audience into the emotional hurricane of that historical period, making the atmosphere palpable. Despite remaining a stranger, the film conveys how the songwriter became the greatest poet of his time.

Mangold co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks from Elijah Wald‘s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!. Starring Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, the film has grossed nearly $97,5 million worldwide. The American Film Institute named it among the Top Ten Films of 2024. A Complete Unknown is in the running for the 97th Academy Awards with eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role (with Chalamet becoming the youngest two-time Best Actor nominee since James Dean).

• Arrived From Nowhere
• What a Revolution Sounds Like
• Higher and Higher, Always Upstream
• An Unusual Film for an Unusual, Unstoppable Unknown
• How the 60s atmosphere is recreated in the movie

Arrived From Nowhere

Bobby (Chalamet) loves rock music, but he plays folk. He writes his songs, and Seeger (Norton) and Guthrie (McNairy) see a spark in him. Seeger introduces him to the New York City folk music scene. After a few shows, Dylan records his debut album. At first, there are no original songs on it: the producers think he’s the right guy to revive the genre. However, he didn’t get discouraged and continued composing, attending concerts in Greenwich Village, and hugging his guitar. At a blues concert, he meets Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning).

Sylvie is brilliant, politically active, beautiful, and fascinated by the talented artist with a mysterious past. They begin a relationship and soon move in together. She pushes him to write more committed lyrics and to fight for the recording of his songs. Soon, “the complete unknown,” who came from nowhere, becomes one of the most sought-after songwriters on the scene. He attracts the attention of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). She is a beloved singer dedicated to folk music, and they begin a collaboration (and an affair) that will last for years.

He also befriends Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), whose respect and example will always guide him. Even during his last complex performance at the Newport Folk Festival, when he decided to play electric instruments. However, the same event legitimizing his fame years before did not seem ready for this evolution. It begins Dylan’s electric period and a new folk music era.

What a Revolution Sounds Like

Searchlight Pictures first announced a Bob Dylan biopic for January 2020 but soon halted it due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, Chalamet continued to take guitar and singing lessons, working with vocal coach Eric Vetro. Dylan’s voice is very peculiar, but the actor was determined to portray every aspect of his character. Rami Malek underwent a similar challenge to play the lead Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury in Bryan Singer‘s Bohemian Rhapsody; however, most of the film’s songs result from a mix of Mercury’s original tracks and two other voices. It took five years, but in the end, Chalamet’s voice does sound like Dylan’s, and even the songwriter appreciated his work. As Vetro said in an interview, he always seeks a non-artificial interpretation:

I was always about finding the right balance of getting enough of that sound to sound like Bob Dylan, but not let it get into the realm of being a caricature of him. […] I would see Timmy morphing into Bob more and more. Then he started, when he would come in, he would just start talking like Bob and there was no need to acknowledge it.

_{Eric Vetro on working with Chalamet – Rolling Stone}

More traditional musicals like Damien Chazelle‘s La La Land use songs as devices to interrupt the narrative and underscore feelings or situations. Mangold, on the other hand, makes them an essential part of the plot. Music is omnipresent, and there are even more songs than in time-honored musicals.

Only occasionally do diegetic melodies leave room for non-diegetic musical commentary. Most of the time, however, the same song belongs to both dimensions, as an accompaniment to an event and a brief performance moment. In the famous arp scene in 1971’s Bananas, Woody Allen mocks this expediency, but that’s not what happens in A Complete Unknown. The overlap between the narrative present and background becomes an apt commentary on historical events, fostering immersion in the story. As a result, the energy and spirit of the ’60s become real and palpable, even for younger viewers.

Higher and Higher, Always Upstream

Musical biopics have become increasingly popular lately. Thanks partly to successful films like Maestro and Ennio and fictional tales of musical show business success, such as 2018’s A Star is Born. Mangold had already worked in the genre when he directed the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. But while A Complete Unknown rides the wave of the genre’s success, it also breaks new ground.

Classic biopics used to follow an artist from his early life to the height of his career. These films shed light on various hidden details of their existence, and by the end, one believes in knowing everything about their protagonists. Rather, Mangold doesn’t reveal much about Dylan, instead building a mystical allure around a legendary figure. Most of his past and inner life remain in the shadows: Why did he change his name? Did he work in a carnival? Where did he learn to play the guitar? In the end, many questions remain unanswered.

The film also lacks the traditional structure of the hero’s journey. The usual story has ups and downs that lead the protagonist to a new awareness and personal growth, while Mangold depicts a never-ending ascent, a life that goes higher and higher. A Complete Unknown is the biography of a myth and a page in music history (and storytelling): the story of the artist who rewrote (and electrified) folk music. The film also portrays a self-constructed character: Dylan emerges from the screen as an artist who built himself (consciously or not) to be what the world didn’t want him to be. Still, there’s a price to be paid for being who he becomes: as much as he can love, Dylan can’t maintain a stable relationship and seems condemned to loneliness.

An Unusual Film for an Unusual, Unstoppable Unknown

The artist’s solitude finds a higher expression in the relationship with his muse, Sylvie. They love each other but can’t share a life as much as they desire to. Though her real name was Suze Rotolo, Sylvie existed – sadly passed away in 2011 – and appeared on the cover of Dylan’s 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. She greatly impacted his political conscience and early artistic production, although she never belonged to show business. The songwriter agreed to the film as long as her name was changed and her life was kept private.

As with many films based on true stories, various historical details have been changed in favor of a compelling narrative. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis takes place in the film while Dylan is performing Masters of War in Greenwich Village; however, he wrote the song several months later during a trip to London. The overlapping results in increased involvement in the narrative time, reinforced by the accuracy of the costume design by Arianne Phillips and the hair and makeup design.

How the 60s atmosphere is recreated in the movie

The attention to detail and the reconstruction arouse a strong feeling of nostalgia in people who lived in the 60s and those who are only fascinated by the atmosphere of that time. A warm light envelops the cinematography by Phedon Papamichael, emphasizing nostalgia. And even if this effect is more potent in an audience that already knows Dylan and his context, the film is more than enjoyable even for those who know nothing.

The title is a play on words with multiple meanings: a quote from 1965’s Like a Rolling Stone, the description of the boy who arrived in Guthrie’s room, and what we finally know about the famous singer. Reflecting the nature of its protagonist, A Complete Unkown distances itself from the genre’s standards to portray an artist who chose to live upstream as a manifesto, so much so that he didn’t show up when he won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature (Patti Smith accepted the award on his behalf). It was the only thing he could do. After giving new life to folk, he brought electric instruments to Newport and never abandoned the various revolutions he had ignited. Proving once again that you can’t stop a rolling stone.