A Complete Unknown review: Timothe Chalamet makes a killer Bob Dylan in biopic

Running time: 141 minutes.Rated R (language).

In theaters Dec.25.Like a rolling stone comes the best musician biopic since “Elvis.”It’s “A Complete Unknown,” director James Mangold’s transportive movie about a young Bob Dylan trying to make it as a scrappy folk singer in New York.You’re probably shouting, “Another ‘Behind the Music’?!”If you, like me, are sick and tired of this overstretched genre after clunkers such as “Back to Black” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” the answer, my friend, is Timothée Chalamet.The 28-year-old “Dune” actor, who convincingly does all his own singing here, was the perfect choice to play Dylan.

Really, the only choice.He makes the movie.Carrying his indie roots with him like a membership card on every frame, Chalamet has Dylan’s same art-before-fame persona, his New York cool, his hair that’s blowin’ in the wind. Most vital, he ably handles the singer’s signature nasal twang in both song and speech.

Some 40 tunes, all told.And, because Mangold has made a quiet and intimate film — not a cliche, showboating one of tears and tragedy — Chalamet never pushes these traits into a silly tribute act.Far from an animatronic impersonator, the actor is always honest and believable.While Mangold and Jay Cocks’ screenplay doesn’t go too deep into what’s going on in Dylan’s head and heart, Chalamet fills the void with a layered, magnetic and unexpectedly relatable portrait of a music genius.“A Complete Unknown” is smartly contained to 1961 through 1965, from Dylan’s “three bucks, two bags, one me!” arrival in downtown Manhattan to him being booed off the stage at the ‘65 Newport Folk Festival. A four-year span was the right call.

Depicting a consequential period is almost always preferable to cramming in cradle-to-grave.Dylan’s first stop after getting to New York is a hospital in Queens to meet his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy).He plays a song for Wo...