Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown,” 2024. IMDb photo

Truth be told, I was never a big fan of Bob Dylan, but “Like a Rolling Stone” and “If You See Her Say Hello” got me. I really wasn’t into the whole parade of folk music balladeers of that time.

In that time, the early and mid ’60s, I was busy trying to carve out a New York and Hollywood career and didn’t have much time to listen to music.

I do admit to still weeping over Simon and Garfield’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which saw me through those chaotic times.

So here I am, having seen James Mangold and Jay Cocks’ “A Complete Unknown.”

Some critics fault the film for “not truly diving into who Bob Dylan is.” Not being a fan of Dylan, I don’t care who he is or was.

I came to watch Timothée Chalamet, whose career is growing speedily. I wasn’t fond of his first two films, “Men, Women & Children” (2014) and “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), but his moves and comedy timing in Woody Allen’s so-so 2019 “A Rainy Day in New York” showed me the span of his gifts. I look forward to seeing his growth.

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I can report that Mangold and Cocks have put together something worth seeing. It is about Dylan, who most you in Central Maine either love, hate or don’t remember.

What I think they did, and did successfully, is give us two love stories between a guitar player and two women who loved him and followed him through the cold streets of ’60s New York to the end at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

As good as Chalamet is, I was stunned by the work in the supporting performances. Monica Barbaro (“At Midnight,” 2023) is wonderful as Joan Baez, especially in one later scene when Baez and Dylan do a song together. The twitch in Barbaro’s voice, and the tears and love in her eyes, give the scene to her alone.

In the wings, his tossed away girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) is crushed by what she sees. Fanning will break your heart.

And then there is Scoot McNairy as the dying, truly great American folk hero, Woody Guthrie. Guthrie is unable to speak, and McNairy gives us a real Oscar-worthy performance by simply handing Dylan his harmonica.

Edward Norton brings another folk hero, Pete Seeger, into focus. Pete was never a speech giver.

But for this writer/viewer, it was Barbaro as Baez, McNairy as Guthrie, and the young Chalamet who make the picture worth seeing. The film has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director for Mangold, Best Adapted Screenplay for Cocks, Best Actor for Chalamet, Best Supporting Actor for Norton and Best Supporting Actress for Barbaro.

“A Complete Unknown” is now playing at the Maine Film Center in downtown Waterville.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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