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

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



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The new home of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo. They’re back, and it’s bigger, and better and larger-er and more-er.

Film reviews, TV reviews, and all your conversation around movie and non-movie related stuff. Plus a whole bunch of recommendations to watch in cinemas, on all streaming services and on physical media.

As well as the film and TV reviews, Mark and Simon will be talking about anything and everything. Punctuation, Thunderbirds, obscure German pop music, fax machines, subtitles, MRI scans, magic, school assemblies, Scandinavia, and don’t forget the dad jokes.

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• No. of episodes: 201
• Latest episode: 2025-01-16
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