"Like a Complete Unknown": Bob Dylan's metamorphosis from folk star to rock star

James Mangold's "Like a Complete Unknown" tells the story of the beginning of the career of a stubborn musician who is primarily concerned with himself. The still successful Bob Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet. With eight nominations, the film is one of the big Oscar favorites.

Timothée Chalamet is considered a kind of poster boy for Gen Z and gave the Berlinale a little casual Hollywood glamour last week when he attended with girlfriend Kylie Jenner. But Chalamet is much more than just the lover of one of the most influential and successful young entrepreneurs in the USA. Above all, the 29-year-old is one of the best and therefore most sought-after actors that cinema currently has to offer. It is completely understandable that he was chosen when it came to casting the role of 60s poster boy Bob Dylan in James Mangold's biopic "Like a Complete Unknown" and it has paid off completely.

It is 1961 when the young and still unknown Bob Dylan comes to New York to visit his terminally ill music idol Woody Guthrie (Scott McNairy). At his bedside he meets his best friend Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who quickly recognizes how much talent the shy boy from Duluth, Minnesota has. Pete organizes the opportunity for Bob to perform in a bar right after Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Her manager is enthusiastic about the young, fresh talent. Shortly afterwards, Bob Dylan signs a record deal and releases his first album, which, however, only contains cover versions of old folk classics.

Musically brilliant, privately mean

When Bob meets the activist Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) (fictional and based on Dylan's muse Suze Rotolo) and the two soon move in together, her political views also begin to influence him and his songwriting. Sylvie encourages Bob to write his own songs and to fight to be able to perform and record them. However, he only gets his breakthrough when he meets Joan Baez again and the two begin an affair. A love affair that they live out in their shared apartment while Sylvie is away, which doesn't exactly make Bob Dylan likeable. Be that as it may. Joan sings Bob's songs "Blowin' In The Wind" and "The Times Are a-Changing", which become the anthems of their generation and now make him famous too. But at some point Bob Dylan has had enough of folk music and devotes himself to the electric guitar with great passion. This is met with a lot of resentment in the scene, which even leads to violent riots during Bob's appearance at the legendary Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

The rest is history, you could say, because in "Like a Complete Unknown" Mangold only focuses on the first four years of Bob Dylan's career and the most important stages on the way to the top, although the legendary, scandalous festival appearance had of course not yet been reached. The film rather shows Bob Dylan's metamorphosis from an ambitious folk bard to a stubborn rock musician with visions.

Nominated for eight Oscars

Needless to say, Timothée Chalamet is very close to the young Dylan, and seems to have completely internalized him in the five years he spent preparing for the role. He moves like him, plays the guitar like him, sings like him. Even Dylan himself is said to have been impressed by him when he visited the set. And so Chalamet can currently hope for an Oscar for Best Actor. In terms of set design and costumes, "Like a Complete Unknown" also has a lot to offer, and another of the eight golden boys could be possible here. Other categories include "Best Film," "Best Director," and "Best Sound."

The film takes a look at the USA in the 1960s, which seems incredibly romantic, especially in light of the current situation in the country. Nevertheless, the film often only scratches the surface. Period and local color alone do not create a profound whole. And so the viewer is unable to get to the bottom of Bob Dylan and his eccentricity, which makes him seem - for example as a partner - quite unpleasant and egotistical. But if you want to beam yourself out of the gray here and now into a supposedly better world for 140 minutes to the music of Bob Dylan, then "Like a Complete Unknown" is more than just a good choice.

"Like a Complete Unknown" will be in German cinemas from February 27th.