Since the recent biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown, you may have noticed your Spotify friends listening to “Girl from the North Country,” or the local record store running out of Bob Dylan CDs. Even if you haven’t seen the movie or aren’t a Chalamet fan, the Bob Dylan craze is creeping back, and I am no exception.
As Chalamet’s recent SAG award win suggests, there was a drive behind this role. Chalamet says in his acceptance speech, “I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me. But the truth is, this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero. And it was the honor of a lifetime playing him.”
Five and a half years is no small commitment. Why did Chalamet feel this musical superstar deserved this level of attention to detail? There’s a simple answer to that: it’s because we’re talking about the Bob Dylan.
Dylan’s impact on discography and musical history is repeated time and time again, and for good reason. Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, changed the face of music forever by adding life and vitality back into the folk music genre. Though Dylan himself wasn’t the most politically motivated later in life, songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” became major protest hits of the 60s, during the height of the protest against the Vietnam War. Musical greats such as The Beatles have cited him as heavily inspirational and a profound influence on their own music.
As the biopic will tell you, Dylan’s songs were much more than statements of political protest. There were experimental projects that were pivotal to musical artistry at his time. Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, which features the iconic “Like A Rolling Stone,” changed popular musicians’ perception of having only one “genre” or style of music they must stick to. Some of my current favorite Dylan tracks actually come from after his initial folk and protest era, such as a track from 1975’s Blood On The Tracks, “Tangled Up In Blue,” which Dylan said he imagined as a painting.
All of this musical history is great and truly impressive to a music fanatic like me. Across the board, there’s a general consensus that Dylan’s music is genuinely authentic and creates a wide range of feelings to be elicited from the listeners. “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” for example, off of the 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, is an 11-minute crooning love song with lyrics like, “With your silhouette when the sunlight dims Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,” and descriptions of his subject’s “mercury mouth” mixed in with, “And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace / And your basement clothes and your hollow face.”
These lines, though seemingly uncomplimentary on their own, are mixed with the underlying tenderness and reverence for his subject, creating a strong feeling of longing within the listener.
In contrast with his harder-hitting discography, Dylan’s influential take on more exploratory sound is also worth mentioning. The titular song from Highway 61 Revisited is a crazy barrage of tone, flavor, and color that is simply fun to listen to when you remove all of the layered analysis of his “genius” songwriting.
Why did Chalamet, after all of his success in Call Me By Your Name, Little Women (2019), and Dune (2021), decide to tackle such a historically prevalent songwriter and icon? The answer can once again be found in Chalamet’s acceptance speech.
“…I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness…I want to be one of the greats.”
Timothée Chalamet’s 2025 SAG Acceptance Speech
To me, this quote says it all. Chalamet could stick to the beloved artsy films of his past or the blockbuster sci-fi franchises, but he’s not choosing one; he’s choosing them all. A Complete Unknown has allowed Chalamet to further unbox himself and extend his wings as an artist.
What’s more Bob Dylan than that?