Bob Dylan’s career was a performance, where he bamboozled himself and others about his true identity. Instead of starting as a mystic, he became the voice of change during the 1960s. His music drove the folk scene crazy, and he was even booed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The movie “A Complete Unknown” dramatizes Dylan’s journey from his arrival in New York City in 1961 to his electric sound that shocked the crowd.
The film stars Timothée Chalamet as young Robert Zimmerman, who struggles to shed his past and become Bob Dylan. Ed Norton plays Pete Seeger, a folk activist who becomes a father figure to Dylan. Meanwhile, Scoot McNairy delivers an incredible wordless performance as Woody Guthrie, confined to a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey due to Huntington’s disease. The movie takes creative liberties with the truth but captures the essence of Dylan’s turbulent rise to fame.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/01/a-complete-unknown-bob-dylan-biopic/680761