Timothée Chalamet transforms into Bob Dylan for the music biopic of the year.
James Mangold directs Chalamet in the long-gestating “A Complete Unknown,” which captures folk singer Dylan’s rise from his late teen guitar-playing years to performing at the iconic Newport Folk Festival in 1965. “Walk the Line” helmer Mangold adapted the screenplay from Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric!,” which was released in 2015.
The official synopsis reads: “Set in the influential New York music scene of the early ’60s, ‘A Complete Unknown’ follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts — his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation — culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”
The cast also includes Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.
Writer/director Mangold told Rolling Stone that the film is truly a “strong ensemble piece” centered around Chalamet’s Dylan.
“I’m much more interested in the wake that this person has left on others, as much as I’m interested in unpacking who he is in some kind of conventional movie-Freudian way,” Mangold said. “One of the things that is truly hard to define and certainly I think hard to define on film — and one of the great questions of life — is what is talent and how is someone born special. And instead of me trying to answer that question, which I truly believe is unanswerable, [instead ask] how does it affect us and our feelings about existence, our own validity? Jealousy, worship, idolatry, obsession, love, all these things can be the result of this kind of superpower that a character can have.”
Mangold continued that Chalamet emphasized the “burden” of talent that Dylan carries. “Where Timmy also does something really quite profound is to show you his almost genetically predisposed discomfort with what his own great achievements then bring upon him and that, in terms of people wanting things, transactional relationships, or relationships that are tainted by the immense power and talent,” Mangold said.
Chalamet also gives live performances as Dylan in the film, showing his real-life singing chops as he displayed in “Wonka.”
“If Timmy’s brave enough to stand out there and make himself vulnerable, throwing himself at this, I should be brave enough to stand behind the camera and shoot,” Mangold said. “And Timmy was a partner in this. He very much wanted to.”
“A Complete Unknown” premieres December 25 in theaters from Searchlight. Check out the trailer below.
