A Complete Unknown (15)
Directed by James Mangold 

 
THE mystique of Bob Dylan is captured in co-writer/director James Mangold’s rich and captivating biopic which chronicles his arrival in 1961 New York and his meteoric rise over the next four years. The enigmatic 19-year-old unknown from Minnesota arrived with his guitar to revolutionise folk music, becoming one of the key figures in the movement. 
 
The film, which is based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric!” shows how he became friends with folk icons Woody Guthrie (a remarkable Scoot McNairy) and Peter Seeger (Edward Norton) who also became his mentor. It all culminates in his controversial and groundbreaking performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where he effectively killed the folk music revival by going electric and heralded the birth of folk rock, a force that would reshape rock and roll. 
 
Timothee Chalamet is transformative as Dylan and gives the performance of his career. Due to the pandemic and then the actors’ and writers’ strikes he spent five years mastering the guitar and the harmonica, and honing his depiction of the iconic singer-songwriter. It pays off as he completely embodies and sounds like Dylan in this impressive turn. All the singing in the film was recorded live and it is off the scale. His jamming with Norton in a party scene is magical and the song he sings on the guitar to Guthrie when he visits him in hospital gave me goosebumps. 
 
Norton is the biggest revelation, stealing all his scenes, while Monaca Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) is superb as famed singer Joan Baez. 
 
When Chalamet and Barbaro sing and play guitar together on stage you are transported back to the 1960s and it feels like you are watching and hearing Dylan and Baez.
 
The film really immerses you in the early 1960s US which was in the midst of redefining itself as it grappled with social, political and cultural upheaval. Dylan’s activist spirit was aroused by artist and civil rights activist Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), based on his real-life love Suze Rotolo, and Baez herself. 
 
However, while the film paints an intimate portrait of Dylan it never shows you who he really was, but rather what fame turned him into. 
 
“You’re kind of an asshole Bob” Baez tells him, and the takeaway from this film is that although a musical genius, Dylan was indeed an entitled prick.

In cinemas January 17.