‘A Complete Unknown’: Timothée Chalamet strikes a chord

James Mangold crafts a masterful portrait of a young Bob Dylan, bolstered by an outstanding supporting cast that includes Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro, and Elle Fanning.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

James Mangold’s ” A Complete Unknown” is a triumphant portrait of the young Bob Dylan, from his first days in New York City’s West Village in the early 1960s to his controversial switch from acoustic guitar to electric Fender Stratocaster at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Straddling a shiny Triumph Tiger motorcycle, a kind of gas-fed Stratocaster, lead actor Timothée “Timmy” Chalamet rides into glory as Dylan, convincingly playing acoustic and electric guitar and singing Dylan classics. Chalamet captures the artist’s spark of genius along with the confidence and insolence that the young, poetic, Minnesota-born troubadour brought to his life and art. Arriving in the Village, Dylan learns that his idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) is seriously ill at Greystone Hospital in nearby Morris Plains, N.J. He goes there, where he meets another mentor, Pete Seeger (a marvelous Edward Norton), and plays for his ailing hero and Seeger, winning their support and approval. While there’s nothing he can do about the present-day big, white crosswalks, director Mangold and his great crew capture the look and feel of the period. Based on a 2015 book by Elijah Wald adapted by Mangold and Jay Cocks (“The Age of Innocence”), “A Complete Unknown” also captures the political and artistic milieu.

Edward Norton and Timothée Chalamet in "A Complete Unknown." (Macall Polay). — *Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” (Macall Polay)*

The country is terrorized by assassinations of such giants as John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X. The Cuban Missile Crisis almost ignites World War III. Black civil rights demonstrators get fire-hosed and set upon by dogs in our streets. The Village is a hotbed of artists, musicians, writers, beatniks, “bums” and gays. Dylan performs at Gerde’s Folk City and gets a rave review in the Times, leading to a contract with Columbia, where he meets soon-to-be manager Albert Grossman (Dan Folger). Unlike many biographical films, “A Complete Unknown” doesn’t neglect the thing that makes Nobel Prize winner Dylan one of the most important artists of the 20^th century in favor of the soap opera of his personal life, although it does feature Dylan shuttling between first love Sylvie Russo (a smart and passionate Elle Fanning)—based on the real-life Suze Rotolo—and his on-and-off affair with Joan Baez (a revelatory Monica Barbaro, “Top Gun: Maverick”). Dylan and Sylvie attend a showing of “Now, Voyager” at the Village’s 8^th Street Playhouse, and it (sort of) mirrors their love affair.

Adding to the urgency, Chalamet, Norton, and Barbaro do their own singing and playing, aided by discreet framing (and probably other tricks). Dylan and Baez form a professional and personal union and tour the country. He burns the midnight oil to compose songs pouring out of him. He goes from covering folk standards to brilliant original compositions such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Girl from the North Country,” “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” some of them protest anthems, seizing the zeitgeist. Sylvie wisely assures him that he’s writing the songs that artists will cover in the future. We see the songs performed. Fans mob him in the street. Later, Mangold captures the lightning in a bottle that was the recording of “Like a Rolling Stone,” in which rookie session musician Al Kooper (Charlie Tahan), a guitar player, improvises a riff on a Hammond organ and makes history. A mordant Dylan tells Baez that her music has all the charm of “an oil painting at a dentist’s office.” Dylan claims he learned guitar riffs from “cowboys at the carnival.” See them shoot Dylan and Sylvie for the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” on a slushy street in the Village.

Manhattan-born Chalamet’s singing voice is not nearly as gravelly or raspy (or incomprehensible) as Dylan’s, which someone once described as “a dog with its leg caught in barbed wire.” Chalamet is less Midwestern twang and more Willy Wonka. But he can sing, and he kinda sounds like the “mysterious minstrel” from the Midwest, who has previously been played by the likes of Cate Blanchett.

Norton captures the slightly twisted Mr. Rogers’ quality of Seeger. As Seeger’s wife, Toshi, Eriko Hatsune brings internalized power and intelligence to a small, important role. As the once-incarcerated country music star Johnny Cash, who urges Dylan to “make some noise” and “track some mud into the house,” Boyd Holbrook is another standout. Mangold has finally bested his 2005 Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line.” But how does the director go from the borderline awful “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (2023) to the sublime “A Complete Unknown?” Don’t think twice. It’s all right.