‘It will be a flop’: ‘A Complete Unknown’ has already revealed whether or not Timothée Chalamet has an actual shot at Oscar gold
Sure it'll be a "flop" if you...don't have taste
The Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet released its first trailer today and exactly one guy has a problem with it. Well, probably others, but one man’s response was “It will be a flop.” I beg to differ. A Complete Unknown is exactly what I want as a Dylan fan.
The film stars Chalamet as a young Bob Dylan when he first moves to New York to become a musician. It shows Dylan’s work with artists like Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). But it also includes some of my favorite facts about Dylan. He even nearly says my favorite Dylan quote of all time (from an interview he did). It just looks perfect!
Searchlight Pictures released the full length trailer for James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown and gave us our first real glimpse at Chalamet’s performance as Dylan. The initial response to the trailer was positive with only a few naysayers pushing back at the biopic. But I am willing to say that my opinion matters the most and to me, this trailer is perfect.
I see this movie teasing the album cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and I just need that in my life.
The artists Dylan worked with
One thing I really loved about the trailer is how it highlighted the relationships Dylan had in the music industry. His relationship with Joan Baez is, in a lot of ways, why we even know who Dylan is. The two were together until 1965 when they broke up after his tour. But Baez was not the only musician that Dylan collaborated with.
Another big part of his career was his working relationship with Johnny Cash.
There are others. Dylan went to England to work with The Beatles, he worked with Tom Petty, and even eventually worked with Michael Bolton. His career is long and varied and I love that the movie is going to highlight the other people he worked with.
The official trailer for the film features Chalamet singing “Girl From the North Country,” a song he notably sang with Cash, as well as some of Dylan’s more well-known hits. But what I love about it is how it feels like a perfect continuation of another folk movie from the Coen Brothers.
I’m ready to cry over my folk guys
One of my favorite facts about the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis is that the end of the movie has Bob Dylan taking whatever fame Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) denied himself of. As a folk fan and, more specifically, a Dylan fan, it broke my heart. Every year when I watch it, that moment just wrecks me. Now, I can do my yearly watch of Inside Llewyn Davis and follow it up with Chalamet’s performance of Dylan in A Complete Unknown. A win for me.
I do love that we have this genre of film. I think often the folk singers we know and love have their work turned into something magical but they don’t necessarily get the energy they deserve. Dylan has had movies about him in the past, I’m Not There notably being one of them. The 2007 movie featured multiple actors playing different aspects of Dylan’s life.
While the Todd Haynes film was good, it wasn’t a straight forward story about Dylan and his work like A Complete Unknown seems to be. Which makes me incredibly excited to see what Mangold and company have in store.
I know that I am biased. Dylan is an artist that means a lot to me. But I do think that this trailer really shows us Chalamet’s brilliance as a performer. Is this the year he takes home the Academy Award? We can’t really say based on a trailer but it does look promising to me. And I wouldn’t be mad if someone got an Oscar for playing my guy.
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