Opening this week is James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown. Already one of the best reviewed movies of the year (here’s mine), the Bob Dylan biopic stars Timothée Chalamet as the iconic, influential musician in the formative years of his career as part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene. There have been multiple Dylan films out there from some truly great filmmakers, but Mangold may have delivered as close to a definitive take as anyone can of such an enigmatic figure.
Searchlight Pictures has dropped one final trailer before the film opens tomorrow on Christmas Day. It’s a short one that mostly focuses on the glowing reviews, but also captures Dylan’s rebellious spirit that captured the mood of the time, and made him a pariah to his contemporaries.
Chalamet is joined in the cast by Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Eriko Hatsune, Kayli Carter, Charlie Tahan, Big Bill Morgenfield, Will Harrison, and Scoot McNairy.
Here’s the synopsis: New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide. Timothée Chalamet stars and sings as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, the electric true story behind the rise of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history.
