A 19-year-old musician from Minnesota arrives in New York City with little more than a guitar, a rucksack, and a clear sense of purpose. He is drawn to the city’s folk scene, but his first stop isn’t a club or a record store—it’s a hospital in New Jersey, where he visits Woody Guthrie, the folk legend whose music shaped his worldview.
There is also Pete Seeger (played effortlessly by Edward Norton), a devoted folk music advocate who takes the young artist under his wing. But while Dylan’s career takes off, his musical path will soon put him at odds with Seeger and the folk purists who first embraced him.
This biopic explores Dylan’s early years, from his first steps into the folk scene to his transformation into a larger-than-life musical figure who refuses to be confined by expectations. There have been—and will be—plenty of great films about Bob Dylan, from the audacious I’m Not There (2007) to Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home (2005). But A Complete Unknown takes a different approach.
Director James Mangold, known for his biographical works (Walk the Line, Ford v Ferrari), avoids a hagiography and instead focuses on Dylan’s complicated and mysterious nature, revealing him not just through words and actions but through music and silence, both of which play a key role in the storytelling—even though this isn’t a musical.
Timothée Chalamet shines in the lead role, not by imitating Dylan but by creating a version of him that feels real. His Dylan is introverted but passionate, entirely consumed by his art. Music isn’t just what he does—it’s how he exists. That intensity, however, sometimes comes at the expense of the people around him. Joan Baez (a captivating Monica Barbaro) sees this clearly, calling him out when needed but still drawn to his undeniable talent.
But if Baez was one of Dylan’s great love stories, it was Suze Rotolo (Elle Fanning) who arguably shaped his music the most. She was his muse, the woman beside him on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963). Yet, in the film, their chemistry feels somewhat muted, which contrasts how Dylan once described her in Chronicles: Volume One as “the most erotic thing I’d ever seen.” Interestingly, Dylan requested that Rotolo’s real name not be used in the movie out of respect for her privacy, even after her passing. Instead, she appears as Sylvie Russo.
Dylan never confined himself to a single genre. His transition from folk and country during a turbulent global era—the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil rights movement—toward a gradual adoption of blues and rock elements is one of the film’s most compelling aspects. But it was a costly transformation. Folk purists, who once embraced him, turned on him. And some even called him “Judas.” While the actual moment happened at a 1966 UK concert rather than the 1965 Newport Jazz Festival as the film suggests, the historical accuracy isn’t the point. What the film captures well is the impact of that shift—not just on Dylan’s music, but on his life.
Ultimately, A Complete Unknown doesn’t attempt to define Dylan but presents him as he was: an intellectual, a revolutionary, and an artist who never followed the rules—one of the most significant songwriters and musicians of all time.
