A Complete Unknown

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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The biopic’s title refers to fabled folksinger Bobby Zimmerman.

You know him as Bob Dylan.

The title comes from a line in Dylan’s song “Like a Rolling Stone.”

It goes:

“How does it feel, how does it feel?
“To be on your own, with no direction home,
“A complete unknown, like a rolling stone …”

As the studio describes the movie:

“In 1961, unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar. He forges relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates worldwide.”

The working title was “Going Electric.” The story takes us right up to Dylan’s controversial switch to electric guitars. This move “earned him his artistic freedom at the price of his relationship with the folk community, particularly with Seeger and Baez.”

“A Complete Unknown” stars Timothée Chalamet as the iconic singer-songwriter. The cast also includes Ed Norton as Dylan’s mentor, Pete Seeger; Elle Fanning as Dylan’s early love interest, Sylvie Russo (a renamed version of Suze Rotolo); Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez; and Scott McNairy as Dylan’s idol, Woody Guthrie.

Other characters include such music scene notables as Dave Van Ronk, Johnny Cash, Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, Theodore Bikel, Albert Grossman, Bob Neuwirth, Al Kooper, Tom Wilson, John Hammond, Mike Bloomfield, and Alan Lomax.

If you hurry, you can still catch it in theaters with their great sound systems.

The film’s soundtrack contains 40-some songs. Although most were written by Dylan – ranging from “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to “Blowin’ in the Wind,” from “Maggie’s Farm” to “Times They Are A-Changing” – they are sung by Timothée Chalamet. He performed them live, having perfected his Dylan singing voice during the downtime of COVID-19 and the actors’ strike.

Directed by James Mangold (“Walk the Line,” “Ford v Ferrari”), “A Complete Unknown” was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of review.

At last report Bob Dylan hadn’t seen “A Complete Unknown.” Nonetheless, he endorsed the film and Timothée Chalamet on a recent X (Twitter) posting, saying, “I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger version of me. Or some other me.”

He is.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com