krocheav
Make way for a mega failure from the Weinstein company - written and directed by queer movie maker Todd Haynes. This mish-mash looks like a film school finalist effort and will please those very audience members who demand an unconventional (at any cost to the end result) approach to movie making. Film Festivals and academies will also be taken in by its pseudo academia and won't see the forest from the trees! Haynes also gives a nod to his own gender bending by casting a woman to play one of the many characters who make up the supposed Dylan interpretations. Here we have Blanchet camping it up to please the critics and 'certain' types of fans, etc. If this convoluted work is an homage to Dylan, then it's an unflattering one, if it's true to Dylan's personal attitudes then it shows him to be little more than a commercially marketed product. His latter conversion to Christianity and leaving his old persona behind is presented in a very bland way indeed - probably reflecting Haynes thoughts on the matter (in fact this whole exercise could be more about Haynes than Bob?). The Richard Gere cowboy character seems to be from another story altogether and largely offers only symbolic connection to Dylan - this is probably the most interesting as well as the least successful of the piece. Some will love this over indulged tosh, others, as the box-office returns clearly show, will certainly not. For small specialist audiences only.
Grant Gadbois
As a disclaimer, I think it is important to say that I do not know a whole lot about Bob Dylan. I thought I knew enough when I started the film, and quickly learned I was wrong. "I'm Not There" excels as a work of art, and an anti-biopic – though it can be very enigmatic at times. The story tends to be hard to follow, as it jumps between characters and aspects of Dylan's work. This is most likely done on purpose, but it makes the narrative difficult to understand. This film is not one that allows the audience to sit back, an relax as they watch. It requires an attentive eye, and allows for an ambiguous definition, as the viewer must come to their own conclusion. After the movie has ended, you have to take the pieces of evidence given, much like pieces of a mosaic, and put them together yourself. In creating your own picture, you may find yourself missing a piece, not liking what you see, or wondering if you've put them together correctly. But that too is purposeful.
wes-connors
Unless you know something about the subject of this biography, you're bound to be confused by "I'm Not There". It is "inspired by the music & many lives of Bob Dylan." For the unenlightened, Mr. Dylan was famous, long ago ("for playing electric violins on desolation row"). The film, by writer/director Todd Haynes is excellent, but inaccessible. And, strangely, if you know anything about the subject, you're going to learn approximately nothing knew. To help navigate, there were four main Dylans… FIRST and famed-mostly, Dylan was a "Rock Star". This period is played out by Cate Blanchett as "Jude Quinn". This character sports a fictitious name, but like much of the movie, comes (not from McCartney's "Jude" but) obviously from Dylan's oeuvre - the Christian "Jude" and "Quinn the Eskimo". This Dylan has the clearest Beginning and End points of any. He was "born" when startling his folk audience by "going electric" (guitar) and "dies" in a motorcycle accident at the peak of his fame.SECOND most famous, and highly influential, Dylan was the "Folk Singer" replaced by the above. Here, it's Christian Bale as "Jack Rollins". This Dylan was quite popular on his own, but was much "covered" by other folk artists and rock bands. During this time, Dylan was more like a very big cult, and his songs were more widely heard when other people made hit records from them. The songs were more Political (protest) during this time, getting vague later (with exceptions, like "Hurricane").THIRD time around for Dylan was his "Cowboy" persona, essayed herein by Richard Gere and named "Billy the Kid" after the outlaw anti-hero Dylan play-acted. This was the Dylan emerging after the motorcycle accident. Dylan left a bunch of unreleased tracks (known as "The Basement Tapes") and "reinvented" himself as a more countrified mellow rocker (listen to "Lay Lady Lay"). Here, the "stages" of Dylan's art become more blurred as he no longer commanded the attention he did earlier.FOURTH biggest change, after a long run without defining boundaries, was the "Born Again" or "Christian" Dylan. This startled some people, but (as the film points out) it shouldn't have been unexpected. In fact, the "Fame"/"Drugs"/"Jesus" continuum is very common among music stars, as anyone watching MTV's 1990s biographies could plainly see. For this film, Mr. Bale (uniquely) plays two Dylan incarnations, revising his earlier "Folk Singer" character "Jack Rollins" to become "Pastor John". BUT, that's not all. There are three less public parts of the quadraphonic Dylan covered by Mr. Haynes… FIRST is Dylan's mysterious boyhood masquerade as "Woody Guthrie" played by Marcus Carl Franklin. He is the kid on the train, sporting the Fascist-Killing-Guitar-in-the-West. Of course, Woody Guthrie was a real person, and he had a tremendous influence on Dylan. While cute and well done, this section is not revelatory, which could be why the film project had "the real" Bob Dylan's blessing. The real Dylan, who appears briefly near the end, did not appreciate biographers peeking into his personal history.SECOND is Dylan "The Poet" named "Arthur Rimbaud" and played by Ben Whishaw. Like the above, but more of a conglomerate, the character is a real French poet named Arthur Rimbaud who influenced Dylan (and many other rock stars). The Dylans are presented in sort of an overlapping chronological order - which may not make sense to the uninitiated - but this one is used more like a muse for the others, accentuating Dylan's reputation as a true "Tarantula" of a Poet, even without the music.THIRD and perhaps most esoteric is Dylan "The Actor" played by Heath Ledger as "Robbie Clark". Dylan did do some movies. Mortals do not forgive. Even an epic focusing in his relationship with a certain sad-eyed of the lowlands. Rather than show Dylan acting in a movie, this "Actor" section perversely shows the more camera-shy Dylan. It seems highly fictitious, but you've got to appreciate "Dylan" telling what looks like "Patti Smith", "chicks can never be poets." (!) And, "I Want You" is a terrific vignette. In sum, "I'm Not There" is an excellent film for obvious believers, with minus zero insight into its subject. Bobby Zimmerman could hardly disapprove. By the way, the fact that the vinyl "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the…" was amusingly continued in the "Blonde on Blonde" gate-fold jacket as "…Memphis Blues Again" is no excuse to edit the song. And, changing the lyric, "Here is your 'throat' back, thanks for the loan..." to "Here is your 'mouth' back, thanks for the loan..." really sucks. Moreover, it's sacrilege.******* I'm Not There (9/3/07) Todd Haynes ~ Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere
