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A Complete Unknown tells the story of the 4-to-5-year period after Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet – Wonka) arrives in New York in 1961, using this moniker as opposed to his birth name, Robert Zimmerman, and we know it’s 1961 because it says so onscreen, although it’s impossible to know exactly where we are in time until the film’s storyline – and Dylan’s time in the Big Apple, at that point – comes to a conclusion in 1965.
He’s in town as he wants to meet his hero, Woody Gutherie (Scoot McNairy – Speak No Evil), who’s in hospital, suffering from Huntingdon’s Disease, and being visited by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton – Fight Club… sssh!).
For a film which rather canters through this time, I noted that Seeger is shown hosting an intimate gig, singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which I only came across when a cover of it was made in 1982 by Tight Fit, making No.1 and selling over 500,000 copies!
Before too long, Dylan meets and moves in with Sylvie Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning – How to Talk to Girls at Parties) – based on his real-life girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 67 – at a church performance, soon also performing with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro – Top Gun Maverick), and being signed up by Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler – Eric).
However, life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, as he’s forced to record cover versions rather than his own intended work. As such, when he puts an LP out, no-one buys it. Still, back in those days, LPs were reasonably-priced. In 2025, they make them a bit heavier, and morons are buying them for £30 a time!
Given that the precise year isn’t shown onscreen at any juncture after it begins (a complete misstep, in my view), it’s left to pinpoint the precise moment by making references to events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, the JFK assassination etc.
As far as I can see, Chalamet gives a good performance of Bob Dylan, from what I’ve seen of the great man before now. Sure, he doesn’t look massively like him, but he gets across the mannerisms, and does ALL the singing in this film, as do others, including Norton and Barbaro, as well as Boyd Holbrook (Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny) as Johnny Cash.
However, while sat in the cinema on the Sunday evening of the opening weekend, I know audiences have dropped since the COVID19 pandemic began, but the place was almost empty! Just five people in the room!
That did make me wonder who the target audience was for A Complete Unknown was. Anyone watching Bob Dylan live at Monterey in 1963, for example, and around the man’s age of 83, won’t be going to the cinema on a regular basis for various – sometimes, obvious – reasons, and since Chalamet has a large teenage following, the only thing precluding the film from receiving a 12-certificate is the presence of too many unnecessary f-words. There’s around 8-10 in total. If there’d been the maximum of four, it could easily have been a 12-cert, and thus boosted the box office. Instead, those teenagers will have to wait until it’s shown on streaming.
As a result, at almost a week after release in the UK – and bear in mind the US release date was Christmas Day – the film has so far only taken a total of $63.4m ($59.4m in US/Canada, $4m elsewhere), based on a budget of $50-70m. Films need to take up to 3 times the budget in order to break even, taking into account the promotion of it, so while it will crack the $70m amount, if it hadn’t, it would’ve been considered a “box office bomb”.
Maybe it’s not a time for musical biopics, lately? As good as Better Man was, few care to learn about Robbie Williams’ story on the big screen, it’s also a 15-certificate like this, and with the CGI spent on his monkey likeness, the budget was $110m, and it’s so far taken a mere $15.6m!
Overall, A Complete Unknown is good, but it’s long and it’s repetitive. Given that Dylan’s seen sleeping with loads of women, perhaps it would’ve been better to have this cover the entire ’60s, then curtail some of what we’ve sat through already… and no, DON’T make this a two-parter like his Dune films.
And if I only had one major complaint, it’s that while the end credits feature a few songs sung in full, including The Times They Are A-Becoming More Different, it barely features my favourite of Bob Dylan’s, Subterranean Homesick Blues.
There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 141 minutes
Release date: January 17th 2025
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Panavision, X-OCN XT)
Rating: 7/10
Director: James Mangold
Producers: Fred Berger, Bob Bookman, Timothée Chalamet, Alan Gasmer, Alex Heineman, Peter Jaysen, James Mangold, Jeff Rosen
Screenplay: James Mangold, Jay Cocks
Novel: Elijah Wald
Cast:
Bob Dylan: Timothée Chalamet
Joan Baez: Monica Barbaro
Sylvie Russo: Elle Fanning
Pete Seeger: Edward Norton
Johnny Cash: Boyd Holbrook
Bobby Neuwirth: Will Harrison
Albert Grossman: Dan Fogler
Toshi Seeger: Eriko Hatsune
Dave Van Ronk: Joe Tippett
Woody Guthrie: Scoot McNairy
John Hammond: David Alan Basche
Gerdes M.C.: James Austin Johnson
Frank (Lawyer): Peter Gray Lewis
Danny Seeger: Riley Hashimoto
Tinya Seeger: Eloise Peyrot
Mika Seeger: Maya Feldman
Alan Lomax: Norbert Leo Butz
Gena Russo: Alaina Surgener
Tito (Gerdes Stage Manager): Reza Salazar
Brownie McGhee (Blues Musician): Joshua Henry
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.