We have to admit, we were expecting James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown to be showing at the New York Film Festival right about now — if ever there was a slam-dunk screening opportunity for a movie about Greenwich Village’s one-true-blue-icon, it would be at that festival (and it’s also fitting, given that the people who would have been in the crowd for those coffeehouse open mics back in the day are now regulars at Lincoln Center). But it seems that everyone will have to wait until Christmas to peel the plastic off this novelty record, featuring Timothee Chalamet as Robert Zimmerman, or as the Nobel committee knows him, Bob Dylan.
Based on the lack of quality competition at the moment, unless this is a total fucking disaster, Searchlight’s got themselves a primo holiday release that’s well-positioned for Oscar balloting (we all know it’s probably gonna be Challengers that wins Best Picture, but hey, who knows), and they’re getting ready for that full-court publicity press. The studio dropped a trailer for the film earlier on Tuesday, wisely missing out on the Joker 2 rush, and it looks, as it did a few months ago, perfectly cromulent.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis:
“Set in the influential New York music scene of the early ‘60s, ‘A Complete Unknown’ follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”
A Complete Unknown hits theaters on Christmas Day. A quick hot take before you go: Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There is still the best on-screen representation of Bob Dylan in this period, and that includes footage of Dylan himself from the time.