As the trend of biopics about famous performers continues, Hollywood chose to select Bob Dylan as the next focus. This 2024 movie, A Complete Unknown, shows the inner life of Bob Dylan from his first steps in New York through his rise to fame.

This 2024 movie takes place in the 1960s, when Dylan arrives in New York with nothing but his guitar on a mission to see his idol, Woody Guthrie. The movie spans three years and shows how the connections he made contributed to his successful career, changing the folk music scene forever. It also shows all the struggles he faced and all the relationships he made.

Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, took the role very seriously, and it shows. Chalamet studied the life of Dylan long before filming began. He made the performance go beyond impressionism. He learned the guitar, the harmonica, improved his singing, recreated Dylan’s particular way of speaking, and even spent days at a time with Bob Dylan, getting a clear picture through his memory. I had a hard time distinguishing Bob Dylan’s voice from Chalamet’s voice when listening to the songs. 

Chalamet was not the only one who took their portrayals seriously. Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez, spent years learning how to sing. In an interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine, Barbaro tells how she went from only singing in the shower to singing vibrato and learning how to talk with the fake teeth required for the character. 

In addition, Edward Norton, who played Pete Seeger, spent most of his time attempting to find Seeger’s true nature and understand his emotions. Besides learning the banjo (which is not easy), Norton looked for the innocence and simplicity that Seeger lived by. He describes his character as the opposite of Dylan, trying to be a normal man instead of a pop/rock star.  In all, the cast was perfectly cast, and all of the actors played their roles at 150%, making the movie as realistic as possible. 

While many parts of the filming process went off without a hitch, the production team ran into a big wall towards the beginning. Filming did not start until March 2024, but the actors were actually cast in 2020. Unfortunately, they could never meet or begin filming because of Covid. The pandemic ended up pushing the film’s release date back four years. However, this worked out well for the actors, who had more time to study and improve their characters, which led to the accuracy and impressive performances they gave. 

Speaking of realism, the set was crafted to the specifications of 1960s New York to a tee.  Francois Audouy, the production designer who worked on films like Ford v. Ferrari and music videos for Harry Styles and Billie Eilish, told Elle Decor that after finding an ideal street block in New York, they began customizing the buildings to the period. They used photos from Dylan’s private collection for his apartment set and visited the Bob Dylan Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to obtain images of the pubs he frequented, along with his recording studio, the hospital where he spent time with Guthrie, and the Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan performed multiple times. Everything in this movie was as authentic to the times as possible.  

I would rate this movie a 9/10 and would highly recommend it to anyone, even if they are not a huge Dylan fan. The film is so rich in lessons and historical moments that even if you took out the amazing singing from all of the actors, this movie could survive on its own and be successful. There is something for everyone.