Young Timothée Chalamet enters the Oscar race and Bob Dylan approves

As this newsletter is leading with the new Bob Dylan movie, “A Complete Unknown,” and as we’re about a week away from the winter solstice, how could I resist throwing in an email subject line from one of his greatest songs?

These L.A. winter sunsets make the short days bearable, don’t they? At the very least, they give us something to look forward to, aside from the whistle at the end of the day. I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and a firm believer that he not busy being born is busy dying. Let’s look at the week’s news.

Could Timothée Chalamet become the youngest lead actor Oscar winner?

Not long ago, I saw James Mangold’s Bob Dylan-goes-electric history lesson “A Complete Unknown,” the music biopic that wears its subject’s impenetrable nature as its raison d’être. And after reading all about star Timothée Chalamet’s commitment to becoming Dylan — performing the songs live on set, asking that he be called “Bob Dylan” on the call sheet and forbidding family and friends from visiting (but whom would they be calling on? Timothée’s not here, maaaaaan) — Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” started playing on a loop in my head, only with different lyrics, reflecting what I had just watched and learned.

Timée’s on the soundstage
Goin’ on a rampage
Listen to that accent
They tell me that he’s hellbent
Look out kid
It’s something you did
You called him Tim
Now he’s feeling kinda grim
He’s Dylan on the call sheet
Listen to the drumbeat
Watch out for the p.a.
They’re sendin’ you back to L.A.

Is Chalamet going to be the latest actor to win an Oscar for playing a music legend, a not-always-proud tradition that goes back to James Cagney’s energetic portrayal of entertainer George M. Cohan in the 1942 film “Yankee Doodle Dandy”? Maybe. Combing through the list of winners — a record too lengthy to include in full but one that encompasses most recently Renée Zellweger playing Judy Garland in “Judy” and Rami Malek’s magnetic Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” — you can easily be persuaded that this might be Chalamet’s year. Mangold directed Reese Witherspoon to an Oscar and Joaquin Phoenix to a nomination for portraying June Carter and Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line,” after all.

And, despite the best efforts of the filmmakers behind “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” which smartly punctured music biopic tropes and made subsequent movies in the genre (such as “A Complete Unknown”) feel a little silly, we haven’t reached the point where voters are ready to say “Enough.” Maybe that will come in 2027 when Sam Mendes plans to release four separate, interwoven movies about the members of the Beatles, each told from the perspective of a different band member. If they’re successful, will we get a sequel about the Fifth Beatle? The estate of Murray the K is waiting by the phone.

Chalamet is a lock to be nominated at the Oscars for lead actor. Who might be joining him in the category? Who should be joining him in the category? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind — and also in a recent column I wrote. And even though you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ... OK, I’ll stop. Go listen to Dylan. “A Complete Unknown” hits theaters Christmas Day. And apparently, the man himself approves.

Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown.”

(Macall Polay / Searchlight Pictures)

Inside the vote that gave ‘Anora’ best picture

Awards are as noteworthy as the group giving them. So this week’s Golden Globes nominations announcement isn’t particularly meaningful. The Globes reportedly aren’t any less ethically questionable now than when The Times published its investigation nearly four years ago.

But the Globes do have a broadcast television partner for the January awards ceremony. So the winners, chosen from a bloated set of nominees, will have a prime-time moment to shine and promote their films, which isn’t nothing as movies for grown-ups are still facing an uphill climb at the box office.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. held its vote a day earlier, and my pal Josh Rothkopf and I (both members) sat down together afterward to discuss the results. I’m biased. But I think we did a pretty good job this year.

Mikey Madison of “Anora,” a lead performance winner with the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

(Ethan Benavidez / For The Times)