Bob Dylan's hometown fans get an early look at 'A Complete Unknown' in Hibbing

HIBBING, MINN. – Bob Dylan fans, some with a shared Iron Range upbringing, got their moment about a third of the way into a specially arranged pre-screening Friday night of "A Complete Unknown" at the legendary musician's hometown theater.

By this point in the biopic, Timothée Chalamet's Robert Zimmerman had already adopted a new name and a convoluted back story involving a childhood spent among circus people. But a flip through a barely hidden scrapbook on a desk reveals clues to the truth: old photos of young Bobby and a postcard from Hibbing.

A whoop went up through the nearly full theater at Mann's Cinema 8.

Some of those in the engaged and appreciative audience in the Iron Range city where Dylan grew up had lived down the street from the Zimmerman family. Some had played music with Dylan. And some were simply fans who couldn't imagine seeing the movie anywhere but the place where he grew up.

[Review: Timothee Chalamet's performance as Bob Dylan in 'A Complete Unknown' sings, but movie hits some flat notes]

"There's something special about this town," said Nancy Berget, who made the trip from Roseville as she's done for countless other Dylan-related events, such as Dylan Days or the time when Gov. Mark Dayton went to Hibbing to celebrate Dylan's Nobel Prize in Literature.

The screening was Molly Johnson-Marian's idea. She and her Hibbing-born husband live in the Twin Cities but have a home on the Range. She was driving to work when she had an inspiration: Could they get an early screening of this buzzy film in Dylan's hometown?

She emailed Chalamet's agent, who directed her to Searchlight Pictures, which said yes — winning her hero status and applause at the theater screening. When "A Complete Unknown" is released Wednesday on Christmas Day, it will again play at Cinema 8 in Hibbing.

Johnson-Marian connected with the Hibbing College Foundation and Alumni Association, which turned the pre-screening into a fundraiser. The pre-party was downtown at Mike's Pub, featuring music by Amy Grillo and Gene Lafond, who regularly perform at Dylan-themed events, and a silent auction offering baskets of Dylan swag.

A who's who of northern Minnesota Dylan heads attended: Lafond, who had loads of stories about playing with Dylan, brought together by mutual friend Larry Kegan; Bill Pagel, who owns the Zimmerman family's Duluth and Hibbing homes and has restored them to their appearance when young Bobby lived there; Susan Horowitz, who took piano lessons from Bob's brother Dave Zimmerman.

Craig Hattam, a local history buff, shared a secret: His favorite Dylan song is Rage Against the Machine's cover of "Maggie's Farm."

Many in the audience joined in a singalong to the credits, a chorus of "Like a Rolling Stone."

Musician Paul Metsa said he was drawn to the screening, in part, to see how Edward Norton's Pete Seeger played out. He'd met Seeger and wanted to see if Norton nailed his accent.

But Metsa also called it "cosmically significant" to watch the movie in Hibbing, "where the slingshot was first pulled back to propel [Dylan] into space and around the world — like John Glenn with a guitar," he wrote in an email after the screening.

The audience, of course, had fact-checkers. In the movie, when Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, a festival attendee shouts "Judas!" In real life, that happened in Manchester, England, more than one Hibbing fan noted after the screening.

Minnesota doesn't get many mentions in the two-hour, 20-minute movie. There's the scrapbook, a Hibbing High School composition notebook Dylan scribbles in and references to Minneapolis.

Chalamet, visited this region last winter. He toured grand old Hibbing High School, met with students performing in a one-act play and drank coffee in Duluth. This month, he stopped in Minneapolis for a pre-screening of the film.

It's endeared Chalamet to the locals, who believe his hard work — he performs the music in the movie — has paid off.

"There were times when I was back in 1965, watching [Dylan] perform," said Mary Palcich Keyes, who led Chalamet's tour through Hibbing in January. "It was so beautifully done."