Timothée Chalamet is Bob Dylan in Electric New “A Complete Unknown” Trailer

October 8, 2024

“You tramped all the way from Minnesota,” says Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger at the opening of the official trailer for A Complete Unknown. “Why is that?”

“I wanted to catch a spark,” comes the answer from a young man named Bob Dylan, played here by an appealingly understated (if still undeniably charismatic) Timothée Chalamet. A Complete Unknown, from director James Mangold and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, follows one of the most influential and iconic musicians ever produced in the United States, but crucially, aims to capture not Dylan’s entire epic life (at least, up to now), but his early, transformative years in New York City.

The trailer introduces us to a young Dylan finding his way in NYC and meeting some of the era’s most talented performers, both already in demand and those on the rise. One of the most crucial relationships Dylan establishes at that time is with another extremely gifted singer/songwriter, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), who at one point says, “Your songs are like an oil painting at the dentist’s office,” to which she replies, “You’re kind of an a**hole, Bob.”

Another important Dylan relationship explored in A Complete Unknown is with his girlfriend, Sylvia Russo (Elle Fanning), a version of his real girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo. A Complete Unknown will track Dylan/Baez/Russo’s love triangle and capture the mounting pressure on young Dylan as he begins to resist the desires of the public and the music industry. “Two hundred people in that room, and each one of them wants me to be somebody else,” Dylan says at one point. “I wish they’d just let me be.” When asked what he wishes they’d let him be, he replies, “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.”

The new trailer also touches upon one of the most seminal moments in 20th-century music history, when Dylan shocked the folk music world by plugging in an electric guitar during his 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance. This did not go over well with many Dylan supporters and festival organizers, although the decision changed Dylan’s life and the music industry as a whole.

A Complete Unknown includes moments that Dylan fanatics will recognize immediately, including his early performances at Cafe Wha? and Hotel Chelsea. The songs, however, will be recognizable to just about everyone, including “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and “Girl From the North Country.”

The cast also includes Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, P. J. Byrne as Harold Leventhal, Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, and Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth.

Check out the full trailer below. A Complete Unknown rambles into theaters on Christmas Day.