Many fine actors have played legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan over the years, and most of them were in Todd Haynes’ 2007 film I’m Not There. To that list we can add man of the moment Timothée Chalamet, who is the only Dylan (we assume) in this music biopic from Walk the Line director James Mangold.
When is A Complete Unknown being released in New Zealand?
A Complete Unknown rolls into New Zealand cinemas like some kind of stone on January 23, 2024. There will be no encore. Probably.
A Complete Unknown
What is A Complete Unknown about?
Bob Dylan!
Or, to be more specific, that controversial moment in music history when Dylan went electric, outraging many of his most fervent fans (one guy even called him “Judas” at a gig—bit rough, that). Mangold, who co-wrote the script, is apparently going for a kind of Robert Altman-style ensemble piece rather than a straight biopic, with many intertwining characters and plot threads.
Personally, if we’d made Walk the Line then seen Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, we’d never go near a music biopic again. But the Logan director is made of sterner stuff. Interestingly, Chalamet apparently consulted with Inside Llewyn Davis co-director Joel Coen, so at least one member of the production posse is aware of the comedic potential inherent in the notoriously self-serious Dylan.
The cast of A Complete Unknown
We’ve got a huge and star-studded cast here, with Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo (based on Dylan flame Suze Rotolo), Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax, Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie, P. J. Byrne as Harold Leventhal, and Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth. Plus there’s Eriko Hatsune as Toshi Seeger, Charlie Tahan as Al Kooper, Ryan Harris Brown as Mark Spoelstra, and Eli Brown as Mike Bloomfield.
A Complete Unknown trailer
Why we’re excited about A Complete Unknown
Well, look: Walk the Line was great, the cast is great, and, all other considerations aside, it can’t be worse than Bohemian Rhapsody.
