A Complete Unknown (2024) on Netflix
NR20242h 21mBiographyDramaMusic
In 1961, nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan leaves Minnesota for New York City to find his idol Woody Guthrie. Pete Seeger draws him into the folk scene, where a manager offers him a contract.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.3/10122,442 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bob Dylan hitchhikes to New York City in 1961 to meet Woody Guthrie, his idol, who is slowly dying of Huntington's disease. Pete Seeger is at Guthrie's bedside and invites the young musician home to stay with his family, opening the door to the city's folk scene. After a Joan Baez set, Seeger gives Dylan a spot at a club filled with industry figures. He flirts with Baez, impresses the crowd, and Albert Grossman becomes his manager. His label makes him record mostly covers and traditional songs, and the album sells badly. At a church folk night Dylan charms Sylvie Russo with contrarian talk and carnival stories; they become a couple and he moves into her apartment.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Complete Unknown (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bob Dylan met with director James Mangold several times about the film, annotated the script himself, gave notes to Timothée Chalamet, and added lines and a scene to the finished film.
- Edward Norton said Timothée Chalamet stayed so deep in character as Bob Dylan during the three-month shoot that he saw no friends or visitors on set, was called "Bob" by James Mangold, was listed as "Bob Dylan" on the call sheet, and gave up his cell phone.
- Timothée Chalamet sang 40 Bob Dylan songs in the film while playing guitar and harmonica, and every performance was recorded live on set; Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton and Boyd Holbrook also sang and played their own instruments.
- Benedict Cumberbatch was originally cast as Pete Seeger but left over scheduling issues; Edward Norton replaced him in January 2024, and Matthew Rhys had auditioned for the role before Norton was offered it directly.
- The character Sylvie Russo is really based on Dylan's girlfriend Suze Rotolo, but Dylan asked that the film not use her real identity; Rolling Stone's Angie Martoccio called the character "Rotolo in all but name."
- The "Judas!" shout that the film puts at Dylan's controversial 1965 Newport Folk Festival set actually came from a concert in Manchester, England in 1966.
- Timothée Chalamet was reluctant to play Bob Dylan because he did not know his music well enough, and his agent Brian Swardstrom had to convince him to take the meeting, after producers were struck by his resemblance to Dylan.
- By its second weekend the film's $41.8 million total passed The Menu (2022) to make it Searchlight Pictures' highest-grossing title in the United States and Canada since Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019.
