A Complete Unknown divides Simon and Mark – with director James Mangold

Kermode & Mayo’s Take

Sony Music

Tv & Film, Film Reviews, Tv Reviews, Film Interviews

4.4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The big movie release this week is ‘A Complete Unknown’, but our guest is actually pretty famous... James Mangold, director of the much-anticipated Bob Dylan biopic and Hollywood hits from ‘Walk The Line’ to ‘Le Mans 66’, joins Simon for a chat. They talk about putting Dylan’s iconic and mysterious life onscreen, Timothée Chalamet’s awards-tipped performance as the young songwriting legend—and accidentally creating the Jonny Cash cinematic universe. Picking up a teenage Dylan—then still Bobby Zimmermann—as he hitchhikes to New York, the film follows his discovery as a once-in-a-generation musical talent and a defining voice of the 60s. Through rough relationships with fellow musicians like Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro)—and himself—we watch Dylan’s rise to fame, culminating in his hellraising ‘electric’ performance at the 1965 Newport folk festival. Is Mark shouting ‘Judas!’ or rocking along? Hear his review of the film, along with ‘Wolf Man’— the latest screen outing for the classic horror monster with a modern twist by ‘Invisible Man’ director Leigh Whannell. We’ve got Mark’s verdict on Robert Zemeckis’ new drama too, which reunites ‘Forrest Gump’ stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in the story of one piece of land throughout time. It’s called ‘Here’, but it might make you wish you weren’t... More excellent listener takes too on what you’ve been watching this week. We love hearing from you, so if you’re thinking of writing in, Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright... Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free): Here Review: 04:29 James Mangold Interview: 29:06 A Complete Unknown Review: 43:50 Laughter lift: 57:48 Wolf Man Review: 59:05 You can contact the show by emailing [email protected] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [email protected] And to find out more about Sony’s new show Origins with Cush Jumbo, click here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Don't miss The Brutalist.
0:03.0	What do you think?
0:04.0	An electrifying cinematic experience.
0:07.0	It's magnificent.
0:10.0	Starring Adrian Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce.
0:14.0	Fate brought us together.
0:16.0	And now, the winner of three Golden Globes, including Best Picture, Drama and Best Actor.
0:22.5	Welcome to America.
0:24.8	The Brutalist. In cinema's January 24th, book tickets now, rated 18.
0:45.4	You know how we are the representatives of the smug metropolitan elite?
0:46.9	Oh, are we?
0:48.4	Fine.
0:50.4	Thanks for telling me, but okay.
0:51.2	Well, I think we are.
0:51.7	Okay.
0:57.8	We're kind of out of touch with what the common man and woman thinks, I think.
1:05.5	The only reason I mention this is we're recording this on Wednesday, and we, the redactor is a gooner.
1:12.7	And so we were talking briefly about the forthcoming Arsenal-Tottenham match, which clashes with the traitors.
1:22.2	And I sort of felt embarrassed to say that I haven't watched the traitors, but then you made me feel a whole lot better by saying, what's the traitors?
1:23.2	There you go.
1:28.8	So I thought I was bad for not having watched it, but then you made me feel so much better by not even knowing what it was, therefore proving that we are both out of tune with the common man.
1:35.2	Right. Well, my work here is done that I've made you feel better on a Wednesday morning.
	...

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