Timothée Chalamet is set to play a young Bob Dylan in a new movie. To me, it is perfect casting. I’ve had a Dylan poster on my wall since I was 18 and had my own money to spend on something. So let’s talk about these first look images.
Pictures of upcoming Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown surfaced online that showed Chalamet dressed like, arguably, my favorite era of Dylan. The images look like a nearly perfect match to the cover of his 1962 album Bob Dylan, the first one he released. His second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, came out in 1963 and is my favorite Dylan album cover. Seeing as the two albums came out back to back (with Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan having more of the classics that people know from Dylan’s discography), it wouldn’t be surprising to me if the two albums were a focal point of A Complete Unknown.
All of this brings up an important part of Dylan lore: his looks tell you a lot about what era is happening. Films like the Todd Haynes film I’m Not There use all of Dylan’s distinct eras to show how Dylan, as an artist, reinvented himself. With this Chalamet film, it is clear what Dylan we’re getting and I am beyond excited.
You might be asking yourself: Why is she so excited about Timothée Chalamet holding a guitar as Bob Dylan? Well, your answer is simply that I love any and all things to do with Bob Dylan, but we rarely get to see him unpacked and celebrated with his own films. They are either an experimental look at his work (like I’m Not There) or a film alluding to him (like Inside Llewyn Davis). A Complete Unknown will change that.
The answer, my friend, is blowing in Timmy’s scarf
I am the type of person who cried at the end of Inside Llewyn Davis when the Coen Brothers hinted at Bob Dylan being the reason that Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) didn’t make it big—mainly because I wanted Llewyn to succeed and my own love of Dylan was combating that. But this era, the rise of Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, is something that is rarely highlighted with him as an artist.
When in doubt, you think of Dylan in black Ray Bans with a suit on and maybe a harmonica around his neck. That is, after all, what the poster in my room is. But I am someone who wants to one day have engagement pictures that mirror The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. I want his first two albums celebrated not for the singles that people know but for that era of Dylan’s work.
He was one of the first artists to constantly be changing who he is to fit what songs he was writing, and while I don’t know how far A Complete Unknown will take us, knowing my favorite Dylan will get his time makes me so beyond happy to see what Chalamet and James Mangold have in store for us.
(featured image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
