With the 97th Academy Awards just two months away, we’re all wondering which film will be the one to take home the infamous Best Picture award. One particular movie that is predicted to get a nomination is James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown. The critically acclaimed biographical drama revolves around the early career of Nobel Prize winning folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The film is loosely based on the 2015 biography, Dylan Goes Electric!, written by Elijah Wald.
Starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, the film begins with Bob moving to New York City in pursuit of meeting his idol: fellow folk singer Woody Gunthrie. He performs a song for Gunthrie as well as Guthrie’s close friend, Pete Seeger. Both men see immense potential in Dylan. At a small concert of his, Dylan ends up meeting Sylvie Russo, played by Elle Fanning, and the two begin a relationship.
Along the way, Dylan meets another folk singer-songwriter on the rise, Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, and the two would later begin an affair. Bob releases a few more albums, finally reaches stardom, and gets every luxury except for artistic freedom. His desire to break musical norms leads him to experiment with electric and rock instruments, which were very controversial in the folk scene at the time.
At the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, where he’s scheduled to headline, Dylan brings out a full electric band and starts rocking his guitar. His team and committee had encouraged him not to go electric, and as presumed, the audience became very upset and began to throw things at the band. All hope seemed lost until Dylan debuted a new song called “Like a Rolling Stone”. The audience was amazed and slowly calmed itself down. Bob later went on to release one of the greatest albums of all time, Highway 61 Revisited, and finally achieved artistic liberty which was really all he ever wanted .
This film took over 5 years to write, cast, film, and edit. The result of this is a phenomenal work of art telling the incredible story of a complicated man. There were some complaints about the movie from very serious Bob Dylan fans about whether or not certain events that were depicted had actually happened. However, director James Mangold specified that the point of the movie was not to recreate exact dated events. Rather, it was to portray the emotions of musicians in a time where it was considered crazy to think outside the box.
Bob actually responded to the film with nothing but praise for Chalamet saying that, “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me.”
Regarding press for the movie, the interviews that Chalamet has been doing are making him one of the most favorable actors of the generation. People have noticed that unlike several celebrities in today’s world, he’s incredibly relatable and humble.
On January 5th at the 82nd Golden Globes, Timothée made an appearance with girlfriend Kylie Jenner. He was nominated for Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, and the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture Drama. While neither nomination won an award, there is still a great chance for a possible win at the Oscars.
