A Complete Unknown will show how a young musician from Minnesota changed the world with his acoustic guitar. It will also show how he then did the one thing his fans didn’t want him to. The new trailer for the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet touches on both the artist’s meteoric rise to fame and his controversial decision to ditch his acoustic guitar for an electric one.
If only we could return to the days when musicians were in the news because of their choice of instruments…
Why exactly was Bob Dylan’s decision to change his guitar such a big deal? A Complete Unknown will show those of us not old enough to have experienced the start of his career first hand. Here’s the film’s official synopsis from Searchlight Pictures:
New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.
A Complete Unknown comes from director James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). He also wrote the script with Jay Cocks (Silence, Gangs of New York). Chalamet isn’t the only famous face playing a famous musician in the film. It also features Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie. The movie also stars Elle Fanning, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Eriko Hatsune, Big Bill Morgenfield, and Will Harrison.
It will help close out the 2024 movie year when it arrives in theaters on Christmas Day. That will be a nice holiday gift for longtime fans. Or at least it will be for the ones who aren’t still mad about Dylan’s switch to electric.