“A Complete Unknown” is the stuff of legend for lovers of Bob Dylan: the pilgrimage to see Woody Guthrie, the early sets at The Gaslight, the meeting with Joan Baez, the songwriting at the Chelsea Hotel, the “Highway 61 Revisited” studio sessions and, of course, the electrical charge at the Newport Folk Festival.

We’ve read these stories in umpteen Dylan biographies, but have never seen them acted out on screen.

Personally, I’ve never enjoyed anyone trying to imitate Dylan. I can’t even stand 95% of covers — Hendrix, The Byrds, The Band, The Dead and a few others excluded. So, despite the fact that he’s nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor, I went into “A Compete Unknown” ready to roll my eyes at Timothée Chalamet.

Aaannnd … he pretty much had me at hello. For the next 140 minutes, there wasn’t a single misstep by the 28-year-old heartthrob, who clearly did his homework.

Beyond the difficulty of the singing and guitar playing (which Chalamet does exceptionally well) there are certain gestures that are unique to Dylan — the way he appears to be flashing a smile that quickly vanishes, the way he side glances when he sings, the inflection when he tosses off a bitter quip.

Chalamet nails all of it in this depiction of Dylan’s life from early 1961 to the summer of 1965.

Director James Mangold’s idea of zeroing in on these seminal years is an inspired choice because it obliterates the usual narrative of the musician biopic.

We’ve seen the rise-and-fall arc in way too many of these films — about Elvis, Jim Morrison, Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, on and on. You get a thrilling first 90 minutes and then a total bummer for the remainder, leaving you deflated on the way — even as they tack on an inspiring exit song.

Surely, there are dips. But the career of Bob Dylan, who once said, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,” has a rise, but no fall.

That’s not to say “A Complete Unknown” is a happy jaunt through his salad years.

The two women in his life, Baez and Sylvie Russo (a fictionalized Suze Rotolo) are brilliantly played by Monica Barbaro and Elle Fanning, respectively. They continuously call him a jerk and worse, and for good reason.

He was not going to write the best freakin’ songs in the world without putting his guitar and pen above everything else in his life, including himself.

As we see multiple times in the film, if Dylan is in your bedroom in the wee hours, you’re not getting a full night’s sleep. At one point Baez throws him out right in the middle of writing the “he not busy being born is busy dying” verse in “It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)”!

The title of the film comes from the classic line in “Like a Rolling Stone” that he is directing at someone else. Here, it is reflected back at him, with Sylvie rightfully railing at him that his life is his own invention and she doesn’t even know who he is.

Not letting people in was essential to Robert Zimmerman transforming himself into Bob Dylan, because within seconds of recognizing his talent, everyone wanted a piece of him.

“Too many people in that room and every one of them wants me to be someone else,” Dylan mumbles to someone at the crowded party.

Pete Seeger, lovingly portrayed by Ed Norton, is on the side of the folk purists. At Columbia Records, John Hammond has him playing folk covers on his 1962 debut album and seems to want to keep him in that box rather than letting him be the “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”

Dylan is particularly cruel to Baez, who wants him to be the cooperative duet partner, telling her at one point, “Your songs are like oil paintings at the dentist’s office.”

It’s worth noting here that Mangold and Jay Cocks do a masterful job with the unenviable task of writing dialogue for Dylan, and it will require multiple screenings to catch it all.

There are a few people — thank goodness — who want Dylan to be Dylan, and they include compadre Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison) and pen pal Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook).

They are central to the buildup of the going-electric moment at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965, a blasphemy executed with the backing of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

This seems to be where Mangold just says “screw it” and lets Hollywood be Hollywood.

The facts about Newport are still unsettled because it requires getting into people’s heads: When did the festival know he was going electric? Was the crowd booing him for abandoning his folk roots? Or for the alleged bad sound mix? Or because the set was too short? And how many were booing? And was Pete Seeger really going to chop the cables with an ax?

The filmmakers go for fun and throw the kitchen sink at it in the wild climax of “A Complete Unknown,” even bringing in the “Judas!” bit from another concert.

Along the way, they do a good job of zooming out to show the broader context of the era — the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination and the Civil Rights Movement — though they don’t spend much time probing Dylan as one of the voices of protest.

Those are a few small quibbles with a biopic that does so much right, it actually leaves you wanting more from Mangold and Chalamet. Dylan slays the purist monster in 1965, but the next era, in which he rejects rock ’n’ roll, is just as fascinating.

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‘A COMPLETE UNKNOWN’

3 1/2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language)

Running time: 2:20

How to watch: In theaters Tuesday

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